Joyeux Noel

We have had a lovely Christmas Day. I hope my readers have as well. I meant to post before now so I could wish you all a happy Christmas but life (toxins) interfered as it so often does. In the past we've had our daughter and her family over to exchange gifts. This year we watched them open our gifts to them via Zoom. I'm sure we weren't alone in that experience. We've exchanged pictures and messages with our long distance son and family too. 

This is the collection of hearts I embroidered and gave to the local granddaughters:

Well, with the exception of the yellow one. I kept that for myself. 😉You can see the book I made for the newest granddaughter in this post.

I've been stitching away on the 3 Flowers needlepoint canvas I showed in my last post. There really isn't that much left to do!

One of the reasons I picked up the 3 Flowers canvas was that I'd completed this little Stitch & Zip scissor case just after Thanksgiving:

It's a good size for embroidery scissors. I changed up the colors in the stars a bit but mostly used the floss provided in the kit. 

We have a stitch along post coming up in a couple of days. I don't think I've touched my little book project since the last SAL post. Guess it's time to pick it back up again! Now that the bulk of holiday activities are behind us maybe my creativity will return. 😊

First Gifts of Chirstmas

Still fairly quiet around here, sewing down bindings and doing some embroidery. I've completed the little book of shapes I've been stitching for our new granddaughter. I figure I can share it here since she's not likely to see it before Christmas morning. 😁

The three basic shapes are appliquéd to the cover with blanket stitching. The cover ended up a bit short of the pages in spite of what I thought were careful measurements. 

The cover isn't stitched any further, just more blanket stitching to secure it to the first and last pages. Well, and a little bit of backstitching on the back cover. I don't know whether you can see it or not.

I just repeated the shapes from the front cover, although not in the same positions! The cover panel and the pages are all backed with a layer of cotton batting so the whole book is soft and squishy. Also washable. 😉

The first and second pages:

The circle is chain stitches and blanket stitches surrounded by Colonial knots. The large triangles are done in stem stitch and the little ones in the background were made with fly stitches and a single straight stitch.

The third and fourth pages:

The squares are more stem stitch with seed stitching in the background. The octagon was also stem stitched, then fill in with straight stitches. I used 8 pointed star stitches for the background. 

And the last two pages:

I believe the heart shape was back stitched, then decorated with fly stitches and more back stitching. I filled the background with cross stitches to represent all the kisses I would give the baby if it were possible for me to be with her. The last page has French knots scattered around the inscription. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. 😊

The quilt I built during advent last year has been finished, laundered, and gifted to our son and daughter-in-law so they can use it during advent this year. 

Here's a close-up of the quilting:

And finally, we just gave this quilt to our daughter and her family for the Christmas season:

I believe the center panel is a Susan Winget design. It was a freebie, partly because of the color shift across the panel. Here are a couple of detail shots:

James did custom quilting in the panel and then stippled around the blocks. It's a very cheerful quilt if I do say so myself. And I do enjoy fussy cutting imagery to be featured in the star blocks!  

The next big job is to get the house decorated for the season. We never really go over the top like some folks. I hardly decorated for Halloween this year so I would like to do better for this final holiday season in hopes of a much better 2021. 

Post Christmas Post

This post is as much for my own benefit as for anyone who may choose to read this. 😉 Time to process the last couple of days and clear my head for the days to come.

We had a lovely, quiet Christmas Day. Just us three adults. Then the next day our daughter and son-in-law brought their family over. It was a much more boisterous afternoon! But of course I loved every minute of it.

I ended up having a very technological Christmas haul. Not only did I receive a new Paperwhite Kindle, I was gifted a card promising a new smartphone. The Kindle hasn't been strenuous to learn but the phone will function as both communicator and camera (among other things, no doubt). Up to now I've been using separate devices for those functions. My camera has been acting like it's on it's last leg though. This particular Gramisaurus has finally been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. But readers should be warned, it may take time for me to master the photographic capabilities of the phone. Consequently, posting may be infrequent for a while. Plus there's the whole matter of getting back into the swing of things after the holidays - which aren't entirely over yet.

In spite of the high tech gifts, probably the most welcome and cherished gift is the ruler rack our son made for me. It was modeled after the cardboard affair I've been using for a frightening number of years. The cardboard dividers had bowed somewhat over time but overall the unit fits my working space and my style so well that I didn't want to replace it with anything else.

Even the maker was impressed with how well it turned out. His girlfriend gifted me with the layer cake of William Morris prints she'd picked up during her visit at the Victoria & Albert Museum this summer. That girl's a keeper! Because of the potential for off-gassing of the layer cake (completely wrapped in cellophane) they also gave me a set of charm squares of the same print collection so I could see what was in the larger set. They're beautiful.

So far I really like the Kindle. It's smaller and lighter than the Nook I had. And the Paperwhite technology really works to reduce eye strain.

The second gift card was for this set of variegated floss from Nancy Turner:

It hadn't arrived before Christmas Day but was delivered the day after, which was sooner than expected. I'll have to figure out a way to put them to good use. For now I'm in heaven just looking at them and fondling them. 😁

I received another handmade gift too, from my friend C~. It's a perfect addition to my studio!

I tried to inculcate our two youngest granddaughters into stitching with embroidery kits I put together for them. Of the four girls they are the two who always ask for the stitching cards to be brought out when they come over for a visit. So I figured it was time for them to graduate to the real thing. I found a couple of cute lunchbox style containers...

And filled them with (what I thought was) floss, a pair of needles in a plastic case, a 4" hoop, cute little scissors, and fabric I'd transferred a simple design onto.

Turns out the floss is more like perle cotton and wouldn't fit through the eye of the needles I'd provided. Or any other needle I could find that would also pierce fabric. {sigh} I didn't want to have to make color choices for the girls so I just went with a big variety pack that divided up nicely between the two kits. Should have looked more closely. Live and learn - apparently right up until the day you die! I was so looking forward to being the one to teach them how to do simple back stitching. Fortunately, I was able to provide them with half a dozen skeins of DMC floss before they left. And our son has gone to their home with them to spend some time; he can show them how to back stitch.

Meanwhile, our daughter had the means to take photographs of each of the girls and turn them into bookmarks for me. Well, I'm supposed to share with my husband but he always loses his bookmarks. He's not getting his hands on these! (Didn't think to take a picture to share, sorry.)

So now I have to shift my thoughts away from gifts and Christmas and find my footing again in terms of what I refer to as studio work. Easier said than done I'm afraid. Especially with a new phone to learn and accessibility to new books to read! And then there are the tedious year-end chores to take care of. Well, they'd be tedious for me at any time of the year but I'd really like to make a clean start in 2020. At least I've had the most toxin-free Christmas I can remember. That was a gift in and of itself, for which I am excessively grateful. 😊Here's to a happy and healthy New Year!

SAL in December

And now it's time for my progress report on my needlework activities! If you're here for the Scrap Happy Day post just scroll down. It should be immediately below this post.

It shouldn't be surprising that I haven't done a lot of stitching since our last check-in. I've been preoccupied with piecing and, of course, Christmas preparations. In November I showed the progress I'd made on the foxes pillow cover.

Almost immediately after that post I backstitched the crescent moons at the top and bottom of the design and a couple of stars I'd missed earlier.

And then put it away so I could focus on Christmas stitching and it hasn't come out since! There's not much left to do really. Mostly it will be a matter of choosing what color to use I think.

Since I doubt the recipients read this blog I'll show one little gift I embroidered after putting the pillow cover away.

I stitched the initials of the recipients and the year on the back. The lettering is all whipped back stitch. I'm finding I really like the look of whipped back stitch. It replicates the look of stem stitch but I get better results IMHO. It' fun to use two different colors or shades of one color too. 😀

I didn't make it around to see what the other stitchers had accomplished last month. Hope to do better this month! Here are the links you'll need to take you to their blogs:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Linda, 
Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, 
Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie

In this SAL everyone works on their own projects and we check in with each other every three weeks. That means the next SAL post will be in January 2020!! Until then, enjoy the holiday season with your family and friends with best wishes from Magpie Sue. 😊🎄

Uncomfortable Stitching

Wouldn't you know it, a week before I have a lot of handwork to do I take a short spill and land on a hard surface on my tail bone! Not a serious injury but painful to sit on. Or to avoid sitting on as the case may be. And most of what I'm working on has to be kept under wraps for the time being. I can share a couple of sneak peeks though.

Turns out there's nothing like a black binding on a dark quilt to pick up all the loose dog hair floating around.

I'm really looking forward to running this quilt through the washer and dryer once all the stitching is completed. That usually does a great job removing the remaining fur. I only hope I haven't stitched too many right into the binding!

I've started a little embroidered ornament too. Not quite sure what direction this is going to take however.

I dug into my perle cottons to stitch this outline. I think it was size 8. So part of the debate is whether to continue with the perle cotton or revert to stranded floss. And whether to fill in the heart with decorative stitches or a word or image. So many decisions!

For those of my readers who live in the United States, let me take this opportunity to wish you a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving. A lot of people spend the day watching football games. We'll be watching some of our favorite old movies before and after (and probably during) our annual feast. 😉

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Eve and Her Fabric

This panel was given to me years ago by one of my sweet sisters-in-law. It's 12" square.

I have tried multiple times to do something with it. Long time readers may remember one or two of those efforts. Like this most recent one:

I always wanted to do something scrappy with/around it. The arrangement of my scrappy Shoo-fly blocks in the photo above didn't satisfy me enough to continue with that plan. All the other attempts failed too. So it got put away - again.

Lately I've been itching to do something with flying geese. I have geese for a version of the Remixed Geese pattern that are waiting to be assembled into a quilt top but I'm not ready for that struggle yet. I don't exactly remember the thought process that occurred but when I pulled out the Eve panel this time this is what happened:

Black flying geese laid horizontally highlighted the panel nicely. Then it seemed to need a dark frame.

That's just about all that's left of a print Quiltdivajulie shared with me. It's actually straighter than it looks in the picture.

The obvious next step was more geese.

I even got in a few scrappy Shoo-fly blocks. 😊And after that, another frame of black.

And thus it stands at the moment. It's only about 42" square though. I want it to be at least 60" in every direction. Guess it's time to make more geese!

The Last SAL of 2018

It seems to me the last three weeks have passed both slowly and quickly. I wondered how I would fill three weeks after the last Stitch Along check-in and then suddenly it's time to show you what I've accomplished! It's more than I expected to report, that's for sure.

First of all I decided to personalize an apron for one of the granddaughters by embroidering on the bib of an apron I purchased. She's currently into elephants, so when I saw this design I had to use it. 😊

Miss Elephant's apron is trimmed with a row of cross stitches in the original design; I chose to do a bit of feather stitching instead. The apron is a pinafore style with ruffles on the shoulder straps and along the hem. Very cute.

When that was finished I finally picked up the last block in the block of the month series I've been slowly working on and stitched it up.

I'm happier with the tiny ladybug on this flower than the one I did earlier in the series.

Pulling all those blocks together into a quilt top will be a project for next year. 😉

Inbetween Christmas shopping (online), decorating, and gift wrapping I've managed to complete the second piggy bank coin purse and make good progress on a third one!

I have to confess that all the stitching you see on the third case has been done in the last two days. If I continue at this pace I'll have that third pig done in no time!

This Stitch Along has been a great excuse for playing with the handwork techniques and materials I enjoy the most. If you'd like a similar prod just leave on note on Avis' blog. She's first in line on the list of the others who are part of this group:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Constanze, Debbierose, 

Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, 

Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Catherine, Deborah, Connie, Clare

Unless I miss my guess we'll be checking in again on the 13th of January. For the time being, let me wish you happy holidays, whichever ones you choose to celebrate.

Wallowing in Color

The floss I hoped to get for Christmas was finally delivered the other day. 😁 Because there was so much in the shipment I've had to let it off-gas longer than my usual shipments of a measly six skeins. Not only did I get the 1,000 yard package I wanted for Christmas, I won a free floss club shipment in Nancy's 12 Days of Give-aways. That's over 50 skeins of floss in one box! I've played with them enough to have mixed the current floss club shipment in with the others to the point where I don't know which is which anymore.

I do enjoy trying to arrange them according to color families...

There always seems to be a wide variety of greens coming out of Nancy's dye pot.

I was especially pleased to add more reds to my collection. There's one card in this bunch that has 27 yards on it of an especially wonderful red. Color me happy!

I've been adding to my Year in Stitches sampler every other day or so. Needless to say, as soon as I could safely use some of this new floss I did so. The last time you saw this sampler I think it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

The spiral square in the lower left has been stitched with the leftover bits of color I've used elsewhere. Same goes for the little circles at the other side of that bottom row. The big daisies or chrysanthemums above that were fleshed out with a bit of the newest floss. I'm going to have to set up a new page soon.

I declared this sampler as my selfish stitching for Bee, Myself and I last month. I think I'm going to go in a different direction now. I'll keep working on this sampler but for my selfish stitching I think I'm going to set up a new project. It's still in the planning stages at this point so you'll have to check back to see whether it comes into being or not. 😉

And if you're still with me, and a regular reader/commenter, let me offer my apologies for not responding to your latest comments. This is just a difficult time of year for me I guess. I'm lucky to be doing any stitching or piecing, much less dealing with the written word.

December Stars

Look who's been visiting The Magpie's Nest:

One of the quilting fairies!

The rainbow Ohio Stars have been assembled into quilt tops for the twins. They aren't quite long enough as is however, so I've been making six inch stars this week to use in top and bottom borders.

I'm planning on 36 total. I'm about 2/3 of the way there. Before I make any more I want to begin auditioning placements so I will have good color balance.

I've also made some 8" stars. The first ones will go into the Parts Department for future use.

But four have been turned into potholders for gift giving. :- )

I made up two of these:

And this pair:

On the blue ones I simply quilted in the ditch (mostly) around the center square. But I couldn't resist the opportunity to break out the iridescent thread for the red stars.

It's been so long since I've used decorative threads or stitches, and I was so excited, I forgot to reset my thread tension. Only broke the thread once before I realized what the problem was though! Hopefully this set will be restricted to decorative purposes. I doubt that synthetic thread will hold up to high heat.

I can't yet show you the other things I've been working on. ;- ) Hopefully I won't forget to do that!

Because It's So Hot...

I'm sharing shawls!

My mother and her two sisters were all knitters. I think my mother was the most dedicated and prolific of the three. I did not get the knitting gene but fortunately my sister did. Many years ago she made this shawl for me:

She was a little shocked at how worn it was looking the last time she visited. Since then she has been on a mission to make The Perfect Shawl for me. :- ) Happily she hasn't hit upon it yet! (That means I get several shawls before she's done.)

That first effort has been wonderful but sometimes is too big and gets in the way. The next one was made of a wool and alpaca blend:

I think the pink and aqua yarn is a hand dye. I've had this one for a couple of years now and don't remember the details anymore. I especially like the lacy edging she created.

The most recent addition to my collection just arrived the other day:

This one is made from a variegated sock yarn in a color called bittersweet. The colors range from orange through red to purple. Just yummy. And look at the gorgeous knitting!

It's too bad my birthday is in the summer, otherwise I would be using this beauty daily!