Erica's Stitches

One of my goals for this year is to get things finished. This mini sampler has been hanging out in a drawer for years.  I don't know how many and I don't know who designed it.  I couldn't find the chart. I do admire the design - it's very simple, yet there's alot going on. At one point it was going to be a pincushion.  Then it was going to be framed.  Neither happened. Yesterday, I saw it and decided to be done with it.  The homespun plaid was from a fat quarter pack and for some reason I had never used that piece of it.  It's scary how close in color it is to the sampler.  I made it into a pillow because that's the easiest thing I could think of.  Normally, I get a pillow form (because my pillows always end up lumpy).  In this case I decided that since the design was rustic a lumpy pillow would be OK. Now it's sitting finished on my shelf and I'm happy.  Even with the lumps.

I have a new finished sampler.  I purchased the kit many years ago at a White Elephant Sale. Someone had started stitching it and then gave up.  I discovered some of the flowers were in the wrong spot but didn't worry about it.  My goal was to get it stitched and I did.  Then I just let it sit in a drawer for years.  I wasn't sure what to do with it.  Then I came across a frame that it fit into so it can finally be enjoyed.  I would never have picked this frame from a selection of frames.  It seems to be too close to the linen color.  But since I had it anyway I used it.  Now that it is hanging on the wall, I really like the way it fits in the frame and can't imagine another frame. The pattern came from Ellen Nell - Needlework Desgin Source and is called Ann Clair's Pinks Element Sampler.  It was adapted from a Sampler by Ann Clair Tinges dated 1798.  According to the documentation Ann was 8 years old when sh...

My friend Pat just went through a few months worth of this blog and asked me "How do you make those snowflakes?" For me, they are easy, so I thought that I'd demonstrate.  Since, spring is coming, I thought I'd use brightly colored origami paper and try to make the snowflakes look more like flowers. First, you start with a square of paper and fold it in half and then in half again.  Pay attention to where the center of the paper is and then fold diagonally going through the center corner. At this point I pick up the paper being sure to hold it at the center.  If you start at the wrong corner you won't end up with a snowflake - just pieces of paper. The two sides radiating from this corner will become the spines of the snowflake.  You need to cut a random pattern into the third side (a very fancy V) making sure you don't cut the two sides coming from the center. Now, you may cut off a piece of the center and pieces along the two sides.  These will...