Rudolph & Madeline

Two new starts...Rudolph...the last of the reindeer and Madeline, my Letter M Fairy. I love Nora's version of Rudolph. Not too much different than the other reindeer really. But -- I do like how she did his red nose, subtle and nice, but still Rudolph! (the background within the gold gets filled in with some white and beads).

Do you like to start at the top? I do...and it's usually because I like to see the heads rather quickly. In the Mirabilia's the heads have so much going on - lots of color changes for hair, crystals, beads and braids. The reindeer does have a bit of bling, but not so much on the actual head. The little fairies, however, usually have a lot of little beads surrounding the head. What's my point? I guess I like to see the sparkle right away, since I tend to attach the beads as I go, if at all possible.

Dragging, crawling...

I need one of those tired, exhausted little smileys here....this is for Kelly (Letter K Fairy from Nora Corbett Designs). For whatever reason, I have been working on her and working on her and wor.....well...you get the picture. I knew when I skipped her to stitch the Letter L it was a mistake.....but enough moaning and groaning....it is now time to D A N C E!! Yep! She's done! She's done! She's done!
And, yes, she deserves the "big guys!" Without further ado, Kelly:
(sorry for the crooked picture...)

Castles

I worked on Part 2 of my Castles piece last night. I managed to finish all the urns, as well as the specialty stitches within them. I have to finish the outer specialty stitches yet on five more sides. I am really glad that Part 4 is a bit delayed this month (since I haven't even started Part 3!)

A Jellyfish and a Flower

What??! That's right - a jellyfish and a flower....hmmmm....what could they possibly have in common? Tea dyeing and tie dyeing! When I first unwrapped these two pieces of Jobelan that had been Antique White, those were my first thoughts. A jellyfish (granted - only the top portion) and a flower (it even has a leaf!



Take a peek:
Jellyfish
Flower
It was fun! I couldn't wait to see what would happen when I unwrapped the rubberbands from the fabric.

Four Fountains

Well, I dragged out Cuba Mansion Mandala again yesterday. I do love how the mandalas look when they are all stitched and done. Sometimes I really have a problem with the repetition of things around the mandala four times. That is one of the reasons I try and pick the ones that have four different sides, even though there might be some repetition involved. Such was the case with these little fountains. There was not a terrible amount of stitching involved in them, just boring stitching....lots of light blue. I finished the backstitching on each as well; now there is just the 'water' backstitching for each.

Stitching Girl

I liked this freebie from AMAP as soon as I saw it. The colors do seem a bit more washed out than they really are. Stitched with DMC 779 on my tea-dyed linen.

Gifts :))

Finally ~ Some batteries for my camera.

Now I was able to take a few pictures of the wonderful gifts that Isabelle sent to me earlier in the week! I had told her I was going to work on Bunny Hills, Vintage Christmas Quilt. She picked out all these wonderful Christmas fabrics for me. Gorgeous, aren't they? Plus, look at the wonderful ribbons and trims. Some of the fabrics are quite sparkly, too! Now I will have to decide how to use them in this Christmas quilt.

She also sent quite a few little buttons for me, as well as some rose colored ribbons and pink hearts:

You can see it in the picture above, although not very well. There is a thimble with a lady's picture. This is from the area in which Isabelle lives in France. She told me that the lady's headdress shows where she is from by the way it is made. Isabelle said that different areas have different style headdresses.

Take a peek:

A Sneak Peek

Here's just a tiny portion of what I am stitching now. And yes, it's my tea-dyed fabric! It is about halfway. :))

I am stitching this one with DMC 779.

Caulipuss

Funny kitty. I like this one, all nice and big and fluffy!! She will get some little black buttons for eyes once the batting and backing fabric are attached.

Plymouth Plantation

Some funny little people, parts of the first house, a bird and some background.....those are the new additons to this WIP.

Tulip Border

The May st0cking from Blackbird Designs is called Tulip Border. Only two colors, but very pretty, and stitched on my tea-dyed linen. :)) I am really liking how the fabric looks with these little stockings.

So far, I have done one stocking from each leaflet. It would have been nice to have 36 little stockings at the end of the year. But, I know me....they would never get done. So I set a goal to stitch at least one. I'll still have twelve stockings (hopefully) at the end, which really isn't too bad. ;)

This is a scanned picture of the stocking. I did leave it rather large when you click on it, since I wanted to let you see how the fabric looks...(c'mon Gabi - you can do it!)

Oh, Sweet Pea

c'mon and dance with me...c'mon, c'mon c'mon and dance with me e e ee! (Remember that song?)

The only thing it has to do with stitching is that is the name of the little Blackbird Designs stocking I stitched for the month of April. I used my tea-dyed linen from yesterday for this one.
After finishing this one, I also started the May stocking, Sweet Violets.
Keep watching...won't be too much longer for that one! ;)

Playing

I really, really like the soft neutral colors of Lakeside Linen. However, the price...not so much.:)

So I decided to give tea dyeing a try this morning. I looked in my drawer of white fabric and picked out several pieces, different counts, Lugana, Cashel and Belfast. I think there may even be a Wichelt linen in there, too. Threw them all in the pot...and look! All of these fabrics came out of the same pot (and were all in there together the same amount of time):

And they all feel so nice and soft, too! All in all, after the dyeing and the pressing - an hour of time. :)

Now to give them a try on my Blackbird Design monthly stockings.

Told ya

...another finish. Did you ever come across one of your projects when you were looking for something else in your stash? This is one of those. I took it out from hiding again the other day and kept thinking...there is not much more to be done on this one to finally have it finished.

This one has been a l o o o n g time in the making. It is the Trick or Treat Fairy by Nora Corbett. My friend, Isabelle, had hand-painted the fabric for me last year specifically for this design. (Thank your, Isabelle!)Take a peek:

I had finished the majority of the stitching on this one last year. It was all those beads! The fabric became about a 36 count after the hand-painting, so attaching the beads was very slow.

Now she is done! Happy Dance Time (again!) (There are those crazy giraffes, Anne Marieke!)

The Bunnies

The last buttons and bows and trim were attached yesterday after I had finished piecing the border.....Do you know how difficult it is to try and get a picture of a quilt? I was only taking pictures of each block as I had it completed. I tried stretching it out on the sofa, then the bed...and then the floor. It does not show a very good picture of the fancy scalloped border, but I was trying to get a picture or two before my camera batteries die (again)...Maybe this one is better..

I'm pretty happy with it overall. I can definitely see where I have improved from the beginning. Plus one of the (ahem...;) benefits was the increase to my fabric stash. := o

Keep watching ~ maybe another happy dance very soon!

Giraffic Park

Funny name, huh? That's the name of the quilt by McKenna Ryan. I bought the first block, which is called Tippity Top. It has a giraffe, a bear, a turtle, a rabbit and a bird. I have just finished cutting the pieces for all the animals. Here's three of them...(they are not permanently attached to the purple fabric yet. I may choose a different portion of the fabric for the actual block.) This is a much more whimsical quilt than most of her others, which tend to feature more naturalistic themes. Not that these little guys aren't "natural." But the colors in this one are a bit brighter than most of her designs. (The bear does get some embroidered eyes.)

A little crabby

Just kidding! But check him out....look at this funny little guy on my German Ostsee mandala:

Crabby Guy

I did get all the "stems" of the various flowers finished around the border. Now I have to finish stitching all the little blossoms, as well as three more of those corners....and three more little crabs! :)

Walla Walla

All done! My purple kitty! All put together, quilted and ready to hang! I attached some ribbon to the back so that I can hang him wherever I like. ))

There are quite a few of this crazy little kitties...the one I would like to do after this one is called Caulipuss....a cat with a body shaped like a cauliflower! Sounds strange, but the kitty actualy looks kind of round and fluffy....

Kelly WIP

Now you can tell that this is the letter "K" fairy from Nora Corbett....no fairy yet, but the letter is there!

And...take a look at this absolutely gorgeous fabric I purchased. It is McKenna Ryan's fabric. I bought it with the intention of possibly using it for the quilt I (eventually) intend to make out of all my letter fairies. This fabric has variations from light to dark. For now, I just folded it around the WIP to get an idea of how it might work with the quilt. What do you think? Me, I like it, I like it! :))

Even more bling!!

Lots and lots of sparklies on this little tree! It is still only about two-thirds done...more green and then the presents beneath the tree.....