Author Archives: alisonshirley

About alisonshirley

My true love is cross stitch, but I also dabble in a few other needlearts and love to quilt and craft in general.

November YOTA

Sadly, I haven’t touched my YOTA project in a while.

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Two months to be exact.  It remains the same as I left it in September.

I feel guilty for not stitching on it but I just have no motivation to pull it out and work on it.  Maybe if I leave it alone for a little while longer, I can come back to it some time next year with renewed ambition.  But for now, I think I have given up on it and it will remain a WIP.

 

Hexagon Obsession

Lately, I have been obsessed with hexagons!

I started dabbling in hexagons a few years ago, but quickly lost interest as I do with most things.

But, after some quality time on Pinterest recently, I decided to take a stab at it again.  And I am enjoying it much more this time around.

I dug around in my craft room and found some leftover freezer paper templates from my previous hexie attempt.

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I pulled some of my fabric stash and cut out some squares.

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Ironed on the freezer paper templates . . .

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Did a little trimming . . .

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And basted the seam allowances under.

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Here is a cute little stack of hexies all ready to get stitched together!

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I played around with the hexie placement a little.  This is the traditional “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” pattern.

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But I wanted something a bit more modern, so I decided on a diamond pattern.

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Now, off to make more hexies!

 

 

 

Quilt Festival

Last week brought the International Quilt Festival to town.  YIPEE!!  I look forward to this event every year!  I take a day off work to walk around ogling at the beautiful quilts and spend way too much money.

O happy day!!!!

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Waiting in line to get in . . .

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So excited!!!

I walked around the quilt display side first.  Unfortunatley, most of the displays do not allow photography, so I couldn’t take pictures of most of the quilts I saw.

But I did snap a few photos of some absolutely awesome “dinners.”  This was a display of 3-dimensional fabric “place settings” and “dinner food.”  ALL. MADE. FROM. FABRIC.

These were my favorites.

You have a steak and baked potato . . .

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Pancakes, bacon, and eggs . . .

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And last, but not least, crab and oysters . . .

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Remember these are not real food.  They were all made with fabric, beads, plastic, and other crafty little things.  I was amazed at how real some of them looked!

And this was a quilt little owl quilt I thought was too cute! Wink, Wink!

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And then on to buying stuff.  And, boy, was there stuff!!!  Lots of ohhhs and ahhhs, and Look At This, and I Want That!!!  This what I managed to hold myself back to.

Some fabric bundles . . .

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A few cross stitch charts from my favorite booth “The Silver Needle” out of Oklahoma . . .

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And one quilt pattern . . .

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A good time was had by all!  Quilt Festival is my favorite day of the whole year!

I’m already looking forward to next year!

Snowflake

I stitched up this cute little snowflake last week.  I still have a few beads to add to the middle and the outside points, but that shouldn’t take too long.

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This was stitched on 28-count blue evenweave I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  I used one strand of Kreinik blending filament with one strand of DMC floss so it sparkles!  I also have some very cute white and silver backing fabric picked out.

 

 

 

O Christmas Tree (the 2nd)

This is such a cute and easy pattern that I thought I should make another.  Here is the one I finished in March of this year.

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I have a few people on my Christmas list that I want to gift ornaments to, so I thought this would make an excellent choice as it stitches up so quick.

I used a different color ground fabric for this one.  It is 28-count Natural evenweave.  This is what I have so far.

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I hope to be done with this one this weekend!  And then I might try to stitch one more before Christmas!  As the time nears to actually “finish” these stitched pieces into ornaments, I am getting super nervous.  I want to use  The Twister Stitcher’s  flat ornament directions.  I’m sure I can manage it, but it just scares me that I might screw it up and then I have ruined my stitched piece.