I Really Can Finish A Project!

Wow!  It really is possible!  Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in UFOs.  Lately I have been quite a little bit reluctant to start something new because of all my UFOs.  I was recently reminded of this by way of a fun Disney Cruise we took to Alaska with SonStitches, Dear Daughter-in-LawStitches, BabyStitches, and DaughterStitches, Dear Son-in-LawStitches, and GranddaughterStitches.

Our first port stop was Skagway, a cute little town.  Rushin' Tailor is a quilt shop in Skagway.  I think it was three years ago when we last visited Alaska and I found this shop.  So last week I walked from the ship to the downtown area and browsed around in this very nice quilt shop.  And I found a really nice kit that was a depiction of a whale tale (complete with beads) just before it returns to the water.  Yup, I had bought that kit three years ago and  yes, you guessed it--I haven't completed (or even started) the kit yet.   :-(

 This time I found another cute little kit and it looked kind of fun for hand sewing.  It included everything I needed, including two kinds of thread, a needle, hexie papers, felt, and ten squares of fabric, so that I could have a choice of which seven to use.  They even gave me two straight pins to use! I had to supply a scissors, but that was it!

It didn't take me very long to baste the hexies, hand sew them together, sew them onto the felt, trim the felt, and finish it off with blanket stitch.  And now I have a nice little mug mat, or whatever it wants to be called!

A Butterfly Shirt for GranddaughterStitches

We were excited to go visit GranddaughterStitches (and her parents) over Halloween.  It was fun to spend Halloween in her kindergarten classroom with her, seeing all the kids in their cute costumes, and to witness the excitement in the whole school.  It was also great to be able to assist in DaughterStitches's 2nd grade classroom.  The whole school was decked out in costumes!

Anticipating our visit there, I embroidered a little pink t-shirt for GranddaughterStitches.  I found a pattern on the internet (can't recall where I found it) for a redwork butterfly embroidery.  So I used that pattern, but added my own colors to the butterfly.

Here is a close-up of the butterfly.  I used blue, light green, and light blue for the colors.  Everything was sewn with backstitch except for the dots, for which I used satin stitch.  I backed the embroidery area with a nice soft fusible web to stabilize the embroidery.

It actually went quite fast, and I soon finished the embroidery.  Then I thought, "That was too easy.  I need to do something more."  

So I moved on to the bottom of the t-shirt and proceeded to make little embroidered flower and leaf motifs.  I added some colors to my palette for the flowers!

And here is GranddaughterStitches wearing her new pink butterfly shirt.  

I think it suits her just fine.