Embroidery galore.

So here's some more of what I have been working on. A photo of the nautical embroidery I did for my house, which is now in my bedroom:





















And an embroidery which I did for my new nephew, who was born yesterday. I forgot to take photos before I framed it (it was annoying to frame, so not taking it out), so that's why there is a glare, which is hard to get rid of. The pattern is by Andrea Zuill on her craft website Badbirds. The link for her free pattern can be found here.







































And finally, I made an embroidery for my friends birthday coming up at the end of August. She has a rustic theme in her house, including brass branch hooks and curtain tie backs, gold mirrors, etc. I thought this pattern, also by Andrea Zuill (pattern is for purchace on her etsy website here), would be great for her theme.

The granny squares continue...

I've probably made about a dozen granny squares for my big blanket since I last updated. Updates are slowing down because of so much going on - really busy at work and coming home very tired. As well as my sister had a baby (so I've been making things for baby as well as buying things) and I'm going on vacation on Monday for 8 days. YAY!

Here are six granny squares I finished this week. And a photo of my favorite one of the bunch.. It took a long time to block this one and have it set nicely, so it's not perfect. But it was fun and really quick to make (probably an hour, versus the others which generally take me 1.5-2 hours each).

Embroidery experiment

I bought these wooden hoops to experiment with embroidery about 6 months ago. Typical lag time with buying items and actually starting the project is approximately 6 months. So, here's the almost completed project. I bought three hoops, all different sizes. In the smallest, I made an anchor, in the largest is a tattoo-esque pirate ship, and in the medium size hoop is... nothing. I can't think of anything nautical that would go with the rest. Any ideas? Also, I didn't write anything in the banner on the pirate ship yet. It can probably be 5 characters long. Any ideas for that?
And perhaps I will stain the hoops. I think a nice, dark cherry wood color would be lovely. On the close up photos, please excuse the cat hair. It's near impossible to get it out. of anything.

More granny squares....

Here are two of the same (!) granny squares in different color combinations. I love this pattern, it's so easy to read and it turned out perfectly. Great pattern for someone doing their first granny square, as you can't really mess it up unless you don't know the stitches. The pattern is by Adaiha and you can find it here.

Applesauce and Cupcakes

I have not updated due to lack of camera batteries. or my laziness. or a combination of both...

On Sunday, I made homemade applesauce (I can't wait for apple picking season... apples, pumpkins, apple pies, apple cider, apple cider donuts, more apple sauce). It turned out too sweet, which was fine for Steve because if he carried a purse, it would be filled with sugar packets to add to everything.


I also made graham cracker cupcakes (the original recipe calls them "S'more cupcakes" because you add chocolate and marshmellows to the top). Due to lack of resources and I didn't really feel like eating s'more cupcakes, I just made the graham cracker batter and my own vanilla and chocolate frostings to top them. I can;t find the recipe online to share, but it's pretty much substituting flour with graham crackers, and adding buttermilk and lots of butter. So the recipe made 14 cupcakes and I only had 2... which I was fine with because they were too dry and needed about 6 cups more of frosting on them to make them taste better to me... But Steve and our friends ate them, so that's okay.

I found this yesterday...

I don't know why I like this so much. It's a laser maple wood cut address book. Independence Hall is carved on the front. I want someone to make paper to fit inside for their own journal. Perhaps you want to do this?

It's selling on my etsy page here

1/5th of new blanket?

I love putting together all the squares I've made so far. I try to wait until I finish 6-7 more so it looks more dramatic (like, "YES! I only have 70 more squares to go!!".........)
So here's the progress. 21 blocks so far. I'm thinking this is around 1/5th done. I need to learn that it's okay (and will be necessary) to repeat patterns. So especially the patterns I love, get ready to be made a few times!











& of course, Mr. Peabody claims my blanket as his own....

More granny squares....

And the pie I made was delicious! It was tart since I cut the sugar in half, but I balanced that out with a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice cream. I gave my friend a few slices and she told me that I'm "in the wrong profession!".. aka I should be making baked goods all day... I WISH!


Anywho, here are two granny squares I finally completed from patterns in my new book. The square on the left is "#35 Tricolor Square" and the right is "#129 Anemone." Nothing much to say, other than my ratio of 1 granny per day has now dropped to 1 granny per week :(