Story Time Sampler – Little House Chart!

by alwaysacraftylady

The last time I shared this project was waaaaaaay back in March of 2015. I love cross stitch. It is the craft I’ve done the longest, but it is slow. Slower than knitting. I have this problem with buying kits and then losing steam. The Story Time Classics stitch-a-long from The Frosted Pumpkin was a project that started off great. I completed the first 3 clues right on time, but then it got put aside for over a year.

Looking back at Instagram I now see I started working in the sampler again in July of 2016. Cross stitch is a good summer time project. The light is better and holding linen on your lap is much more comfortable than wool. I finished Story Time back in September 2016 and it has been patiently waiting to be framed ever since.

Sorry sampler, your wait just got a lot longer. In December The Frosted Pumpkin announced a 3rd sampler in their book series AND I got the kit for the 1st sampler as a Christmas gift so at this point I think I’ll wait and frame all 3 at one time.

I’m a pretty big fan of The Frosted Pumpkin style. It is cute and their taste in books really connected with me. So many of the stories were loved by my childhood self. I mean they even put my besties Anne and Jo right next to each other!

However I’m not the biggest fan of their original pick for August (Phantom of the Opera). So I swapped in another one of my favorite characters, Laura Ingalls. I’m a huge fan of pioneer fiction and it didn’t seem right to leave Laura out of the party. I took to excel and managed to work out my own pattern for August. Picking a part of the story that would fit in the frame was tough, but I settled on Laura and Jack following the wagon train as a recognizable scene.

If you’d like to swap Laura into your own Story Time Sampler just follow this link. The lovely ladies at The Frosted Pumpkin said it was okay as long as I only posted the part I designed. One tab with has a design with Jack and one without.

15Jan2017

Christmas 2016 – Part 2

by alwaysacraftylady

And now part 2! Things I made for adults in my life.

So 2016 was the year I learned to knit socks. It’s silly. I don’t wear socks during the day. However I do enjoy wearing the hand knit socks I’ve received as gifts! So I started off knitting a couple pairs for myself and realized if I was going to feed my sock knitting obsession I needed to branch out to gift knitting.

It started with this pair I made for my mom. I didn’t quite have the right colors for her so I wandered down to my local yarn shop and picked up a skein of Malabrigo Sock in Anniversario. It is quite lovely with reds and purples all intermixed. It looks a little nutty in the photos, but in person the colors blend nicely. We have fairly similar feet so they it was easy to gauge the size and I hear she enjoys wearing them.

Next up are socks for my sister. My mom and sister are pretty forgiving gift receivers should things turn wonky. Thankfully this pair also turned out just beautifully. This time I used Dark Harbour Yarns in Bluebottle, but the color really reminded me of Elsa from Frozen and the color is a gradual fade from white with speckles to a dark blue-green. Totally stunning. Nikki creates gorgeous colors!

And then there is the cross stitching! I bought the kit from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. It was a mystery stitch along and their patterns are so darling. Not sure what I’m going to do with the long narrow piece, but the bonus ornament pattern was super adorable! So I made two, one for our tree and one for their cousins’ tree!

Then there were was cooking, baking ,and tea towel calendar hemming and all those little projects that fly under the radar! A busy season to be sure, but it was fun to dive into my stash of supplies and come up with some fun customized gifts for some of my family this year.

And now back to my ever growing queue of projects! On top of sewing my usual favorites we have two weddings to attend this spring and of course Easter dresses to plan. I so looking forward to making some fun things!

1Mar2015

Story Time Sampler – February!

by alwaysacraftylady

Okay so in 28 minutes it will be March here in Los Angeles which means the next installment has come out for The Frosted Pumpkin’s Story Time Sampler. March’s book is Sherlock Holmes and I started working on it right away because I am all caught up. YAY!!!

And look who is tagging along, my new needle minder. Isn’t it cute?

Still hoping to get a photo session soon. I’ve finished 2 dresses and 3 skirts I’d love to share, but my poor husband seems to have caught what DD2 had a few days ago.

28Feb2015

Stitches West!

by alwaysacraftylady

Whew! What a week. It was my last week of maternity leave and DD1 was sick and well, I was busy. But Stitches West was great! Look! Knitting! Bless my mother who did the majority of the driving while I knit and tried in vain to get DD2 to relax and nap in the car.

Stitches itself was really great as always even if I was only there for less than 3 hours. The marketplace was filled with fun vendors and I was especially glad to meet the ladies of The Frosted Pumpkin since I’ve picked up cross stitch again. And my friend Erica snagged me one of the exclusive kits The Frosted Pumpkin was selling. So cute with little sheep and socks and such! My sister was thrilled to see Stephen West’s outfit.

There was also Jennie the Potter. I’ve heard a ton about her beautiful work from people who have attended Rhinebeck. I told myself I wouldn’t buy a mug, but I ended up buying a small tumbler to bring out on special occasions (when the kids aren’t around).

Mostly I like to just walk around and see what’s new and hot. Last year Plucky was all the rage and it was clear YOTH was this year’s hot ticket. By the time I got there around lunch on Friday a lot of their stock was already gone! But I hear they are coming to Vogue Knitting Live in April, so maybe there will be more selection there. Also, note to self – track down this gorgeous purple from Jill Draper Makes Stuff.

My girls also had a good time. My mom and sister took DD1 while I shopped. I think the escalator was her favorite part, though her chocolate milk snack was a close second. DD2 had a great time snuggled up against my chest. I swear I couldn’t go more than a few feet before being stopped by someone wanting to take a peek at my red headed girl, but I don’t blame them. Babies in hand knits are irresistible!

In the end here is my haul of goodies.

I’ve been busy sewing almost every night this week, so I hope to have more to share soon. But it will depend on if we get rain this weekend. I hope we do because we need it so badly!

2Feb2015

Story Time Sampler – January Update

by alwaysacraftylady

Well, you might have noticed it is now February. But I am still plugging away on January’s clue for the Story Time Sampler. It is okay though. First of all, the January clue (the biggest one) didn’t come out until January 15th. Then my supplies didn’t arrive for another few days. Unless I dropped everything it was unlikely I’d finish the whole clue before January 31st, but I did what I could. So now I have Alice (from “Alice in Wonderland”) and Mary Lennox (from “The Secret Garden”) waiting for me to catch up. I’m getting there. I swear.

25Jan2015

Story Time Sampler – January

by alwaysacraftylady

Anyone else working on The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery’s 2015 Story Time Sampler? I haven’t finished a cross stitch project in years, but when I found out about the 2014 version I couldn’t wait to sign up for the 2015 stitch a long. This year’s version is going to feature some favorite characters from children’s literature, but before I can fill in January’s details (Alice in Wonderland), I need to finish all the prep. Four frames down, 8 more to go!