Spring Peacock Needle Book and Pincushion

I finally finished my Spring Peacock Needle Book and Pincushion. I aged these pieces a little more than I usually do. To be honest I'm not entirely sure I like it but you never know, it could grow on me after a few days. I just love the look of extreme prims but when I try it I'm never happy with the results. I suppose I'll eventually get the hang of it.

My attempts at aging aside the design is very sweet and I love it. The colors really were a joy to stitch with; they're such lovely colors. The set is a little touch of Spring . . . A pretty little peacock, a single bloom, and a basket of eggs. A sweet little flower tree . . . The wool tulips on the inside are just perfect (at least in my opinion) and they were so much fun to applique. I've told myself that there are two to of them to help organize my needles. Say two different sized cross stitch needles, or cross stitch needles and applique needles. Really I just couldn't decide which color wool to use. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing it and just those two little tulips weren't nearly enough for me. Time to take out the wool stash and start planning another project. Can someone have too many projects going at once?

The fabrics were just a perfect compliment as well. I purchase them from Nauvoo Quilt Shop on Etsy. Julie is so sweet and she has the most lovely reproduction fabrics. Her listings are all for half yards but since I never need that much fabric for any one project she's so sweet and puts together listings for me of fat quarters of the materials I want. She has certainly helped to grow my fabric stash!!! If you like the design and want the same fabrics she still has them listed. If you'd like the purchase the pattern just e-mail me at appleseedprim@yahoo.com.

An e-pattern is $6.00 and a printed pattern is $7.50 which includes the shipping costs. The pattern includes the finishing instructions for the needle book including the template for the wool tulips. I actually think when I wrote out the finishing instructions I said I did a light tea stain. Hmmm . . . well whenever you create something you have to trust your instincts and definitely experiment.

I think I'm going to take a little break from cross stitch. I do want to do some applique or maybe rug hooking (working with wool is so gratifying) or maybe even back to the punch needle (again). At any rate, I'll be sure to share with you ladies.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Busy, busy, busy . . .

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile. This really is such a busy time of year for me. Spring is the time of birth for so many things including most members of my family :) Birthday season in our house starts on January 10th and continues on from that date. February 12th, March 1st, April 5th and 6th . . . For that time my house is never without a bouquet of helium balloons in every color of the rainbow, I make upwards of twelve dozen (that's a gross) of cupcakes, I am forever finding pieces of wrapping paper stuck with tape to my clothing, and there is an almost constant stream of family, friends, and well wishers through our door. On top of that is Spring cleaning, Easter, the start of the Spring soccer session and rehearsels for the Summer ballet recital. Thank goodness my two youngest are too young for after school activities; short of cloning myself I have no idea what I will do when they're no longer too young.

During my "off" days I am working on my punch needle, wool applique and the Spring Peacock. I'm also hoping to start work on a rag quilt and some make-do's. I don't think I have enough "off" days. Most days it's nice to have a project you can pick up for a moment or two and then leave for hours at a time. This past weekend, in between three soccer matches on a single day (10am, 1pm and 5pm) I covered my first paper mache box. Believe it or not this is one craft I have never attempted before. I have purchased painted and fabric covered boxes in the past but I thought I could give it a try. One can never have too many boxes . . .

I assure you the Spring Peacock pin cushion and needlebook will be finished this week along with my mud room and boiler room being cleaned of Winter clutter. Sring can be a wonderful time of year, but I can do with a little less hustle and bustle, and a little more sitting and stitching.

Don't forget about my giveaway!!!

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Meg's Flower -- Wool Applique

Before cutting into my new wool I decided to finish stitching an applique I started months ago. It's been sitting in a tin in my dining room all that time. Every once and awhile I would look at it, occassionally I would take it out and lay it on the table, sometimes I would carefully place all the pieces, there were even times I threaded the needle. Then I hastily put it all back and hid the tin behind something so as to not have it mock me. Like I said I'm new to wool applique (this is only my second project) and my confidence is a little low. Though I have to say I'm very happy with how this came out and and now have renewed confidence to tackle my other projects.

I used Gentle Arts Simply Wool for the stitching; I like the fuzzy look. As you can see I'm still not confident enough to applique something as thin as a flower stem so I decided to embroider the stem instead. The little lazy daisy flowers in the circles were my husband's idea or at least they were how I interpreted the little doodle he did. I'm still not sure how to "finish" it. Do I back it with wool, felt, quilting cotton? Do I stitch on the little "tabs" I see on penny rugs? Do I get another larger piece of wool to back it and cut little scallops around the edge? More circles within the tabs or scallops, maybe a few more daisies? Any ideas? For now I think it will simply lay on my hanging rack for me to draw inspiration from if my confidence wanes while working on my other projects.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn