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.

Mourning Cloak butterfly

I have made a bit of progress on my Mourning Cloak butterfly.

This was what it looked like on June 29th.

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And this is what it looks like today.

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It still looks like I threw up on my fabric, but at least it is beginning to take the shape of a butterfly.

I’m not fond of the color scheme of this butterfly, but I’m sure it will look better once it is finished.

A Late TUSAL

So, I am a little late on my TUSAL post, and I think I missed last month all together!  But, at least I’m not the only one!

I did take the picture, but just haven’t been able to post for various and sundry reasons.

Here was my progress as of last week.

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My little jar is filling up.  I have been looking for a large decorative jar to empty it into, but haven’t found one yet that strikes my fancy.

A “Frog” and a Snowman

I have made quite a bit of progress on my Joey snowman ornament.  At my last post of Joey, he was just a forehead, half a cheek, and half a nose.

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Here he is now with two eyes and his nose finished.

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If you look carefully, you will see a white pile of threads to the right.  That is what I had to remove between the cheek and eyes because I had stitched it incorrectly!  ARGH!!!  I hate un-stitching because I’m not paying close attention.  Unfortunately, I have been doing quite a bit of that lately.  Usually, I catch myself early and only need to remove a few stitches, but lately, it has been a frog-fest.

I am not stitching as fast as I need to complete my goal of finishing all 5 snowmen before Christmas!  I need to pick up the pace and get to stitching!

 

 

 

 

August YOTA Update

It’s time for YOTA again!  Well, YOTA time has actually come and gone, but I have a really good excuse for being late!  I was on a roll this weekend and didn’t want to stop stitching to post!  Unlike in months past, I pulled out my TLOTDT project several days before the post deadline of Saturday.  I was determined to stitch more than just a few hours on this project this month!

This is what I started with from last month.1436067257493

And this was my progress after a few days of stitching this month.

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It doesn’t look like much because most of the stitching was done in the white petals, but there is some tan back-stitching in there also.   I did get to move on to one of the leaves and was super excited to stitch with something other than white or cream!

And then I realized something.  I stitched the green incorrectly!!!!  UGH!!!  I accidentally stitched it using two threads instead of three!!!!  Frogging time!  (You can see my frogged threads in the pic below.)  After ripping out my progress in the leaf and re-stitching using the correct number of threads, this is what it looks like now.

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I finished the rest of the leaf and did a little more back-stitching in the petals.

I am super proud of my progress considering my stitching on this project has been pitiful these last few months!  This is not a project I usually enjoy stitching, but it was a pleasure seeing progress this weekend.

 

 

 

 

Tooth Fairy Monster Pillow

I wanted to make a tooth fairy pillow for my son.  I picked up some scrap fabric from the clearance bin and two buttons for the eyes.

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After some calculating, I figured a finished pillow of 7 1/2 inches would be perfect.  So, I cut two 8 inch squares and two 8×4 inch squares.

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I then sewed two small squares for the teeth and sandwiched those between the two mouth pieces and sewed them all together.

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I sewed two circles to put behind the button eyes for a cartoonish effect.

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I then put everything together for the front of the monster.

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Next came sewing the back square to the front and including a loop for hanging.

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I stuffed it with fiberfill and . . .

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Voila!  A Tooth Fairy Monster pillow is made!

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I really liked the way this turned out!  I think it is super cute!

This is one of two projects I completed at retreat.  I didn’t get as much accomplished at retreat as I would have liked.  Next time maybe there will less talking and more sewing!