The next picture is "The Cat and the Moon" by Brenda Gervais. I started this on 40 count Italian linen (40 ct. is what was the suggested linen) however after 15 minutes of stitching on the Italian linen, which seems really dense to me, I said the hell with it and was struggling to figure out what I could do with it if I stitched on a larger count. I was thinking a tart pan, ornament and then it hit me. I decided to use 20 count linen and stitch over 1...so much easier and it comes out the same size. Since it was over one, I used 2 strands of the floss called for and had it finished in no time. Love it! I was a little concerned about the finishing of this however. So I started gathering supplies. I knew I wouldn't use crepe paper but felt I could use ribbon or fabric, and then saw someone else on Facebook used ribbon so off to Michaels I went. They had all their Halloween merchandise out and 40% off so it was a win for me. It took me forever to pick a ribbon and wasn't sure I would like it until I put it on the pot. While she called for a peat pot to be used, but I walked into my laundry room and was searching for something (I didn't find that), but looked up and saw a 3" clay pot from who knows where, I simply can't force myself to throw stuff away because I am certain I will use it someday....and this proves my point (that's my story and I'm sticking to it.) When I finally sat down to finish, I started with the double stick tape on the inside of the pot. I gathered the ribbon by pulling on the wired edge on one side and it worked perfectly. So wire on the bottom which I left alone and gathered the fabric on the top on the wire. The double stick tape didn't work and I was too lazy to get the hot glue gun so I used the thick white glue that was already in the dining room. Worked fine. Then I got out Brenda's directions and realized I had cut the fabric short on part of the circle of fabric....why God do I do this just about everytime. I never learn. She gathered the linen after stuffing the piece and used a rubber band around the bottom which wouldn't show as it would be inside the pot. I gathered the bottom and used my carpet thread wrapped around the bottom and then stuffed it in the pot. At first it was just to see how much smaller I needed to make it....but after looking at it I said, DONE!! So it's just stuck in there. The only thing about my finishing is I can never get all the creases out of this type of finish. If I gather around a matboard circle I cut, I can get a perfect finish, but if no matboard is used directly under the stitched piece, it's a crap shoot. And the matboard on this piece has quite a bit of polyfil on top so it can be used as a pin cushion. But I love the piece, think the finish is cute and believe it or not, I can enjoy it without stressing too much over the creases. So the second picture gives you the view from the side and the clay pot. I did not make a handle, because I think it's so cute without it and although I was in Home Depot, I decided my version doesn't need the handle. I topped it off with a couple of specialty pins. a Jack-O-Lantern and a pumpkin, which you can see on the top right corner of the picture and I've shown them at the end of this blog for a good look.
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The next project was already stitched but I wasn't able to put it together until I painted the spool. This is the Hands on Design "Wild Salt Air:" I showed the tray, etc. in my last blog . As is often the case with my do-it- myself projects, this didn't go well. I purchased two different blues which were the only 2 at Michaels that I thought would come close. Neither of them did! Sara suggested I just take navy and white, mix them and go with that, but that would not have worked because the blue of the tray actually has gray in it I think. So I decided to take midnight blue, add it to a little white to get a gray and then add that to the blue. I gathered my paints and when I went to add the white it was just a solid mass, but not hard yet. So I dug a blob out, got some warm water and started the process of slowly getting it liquid enough to add it to the midnight blue and then added in the lightest blue. Finally it was close enough I could finish the spool. While I'm certain I could have done better, I wasn't able to get to Michaels and of course I was ready to finish the project come hell or high water. Project done....close enough. White paint on my list for my next Michael's run.
After finishing the Cat and the Moon pin cushion, I thought about pins for it. Every pin cushion needs fabulous pins to anchor it. I happy to have just made a couple of pins using small jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins and deemed them perfect for this piece. Yeah!
And now I must move on to finish more projects. I'm almost done with another Heartstring Samplery piece, Festive Fobs-Beekeeper Edition. Can't wait to show you and I picked up the latest Halloween Short Stack from Hands on Design....oh, yes I'm very busy in anticipation of our events. Today I'm going in to the shop to see the stitchers from The Tangles Group who are having their own retreat this week in Ocean City right down the boardwalk from us (so they can walk here anytime they feel like it). So Vera will be in the house today....we welcome all the stitchers and love to see what they are all working on. I'll be busy meeting and greeting during the day and working feverishly on stitching for the Delaware Guild who has their retreat next weekend at the hotel and the weekend after that is our Fall Retreat here so I don't have a minute to lose. Have a great weekend and I hope you area able to put needle to linen or aida too.
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