A Cross Stitch Collage in Progress...

I have been working on this Cross Stitch project since Christmas. It is a small design with a quilt, trees, and a house. It reminds me of a cozy home and everything that a home means to me. I decided over the weekend to take a short break from stitching so I could start working on the base for the collage portion. This was very fun and relaxing to do especially after a busy, stressful work week!

I also decided not to paint the dryer sheet I was working with but to dye it in coffee. I actually used my French Press as the coffee grounds are right in the coffee as it is brewing. It was a little messy rinsing out the dryer sheet but wow did it take the color! I also dyed a piece of cotton muslin but that came out much lighter and not nearly as rich in color.

Hopefully, I will get the collage base finished this week. I'm also still working on the stitching too; there is something so peaceful about sitting quietly and doing handwork that I could never take more than about a 48 hour break from it. I don't know about you all but I get antsy and irritable when I've gone several days and haven't had my time to just "create". Even if it's only fifteen or twenty minutes a day, to myself, to just let my mind wander and get inspired, or to get engrossed in stitching, or blogging, or even playing with coffee and a used dryer sheet! My wish for everyone this week is that may we all find that time to do what we love...

One last look at Christmas 2009...

Well I finally got my Christmas tree down today. I had taken all of the other Christmas decorations down about two weeks ago but got busy with other things and just today finished taking the tree down...

Part of me didn't really want to take it down. It lit up the living room so nicely, and was like a bright spot in our long, cold, cloudy Ohio winters. In fact, we were going out to dinner last Thursday evening and as we were pulling out of the driveway Andrew said to me "ya know, we could at least turn the tree lights off" (our tree sat in front of the living room window) and I said "no if we keep the tree lights on everyone in the neighborhood will just think I planned on keeping the tree up this long". Oh well, Christmas is officially over in our house today. I guess now I can start planning for Valentine's Day and Easter!

Finding Balance by Getting Organized...

I have only one resolution for 2010 and that is to find balance. Balance between being a wife and mother, work (and there seems to be more and more responsibility at work lately), a myriad of domestic duties (like laundry!), and time to be creative. One of the goals I have set for myself in order to achieve balance is to be more organized...

My craft/creative space is also used as an office, and as a space for Andrew to store some of his hunting stuff. It is not very big but it is cozy and very workable. Last winter, Andrew built some wonderful cabinets for me and installed a counter top. This worked well until I started back to work last January and then the organization thing just fell by the way side! I have spent several days cleaning and organizing...

While I am not finished (I still have more clutter to clean out and cleaning to do) it is really nice to be able to come back here and work - without having to dig for twenty minutes before I start a project.

I also did not realize that I have so many buttons! I think I'm going to have to start doing something with them. I am currently cross-stitching a wonderful countryish, quilty design that I'm going to add to a collage. Cleaning up also allowed me to find my stash of dryer sheets that I had not seen in a long time. So this weekend I'm going to work on staining them with coffee and tea. Have a great weekend...

Creating what I love in 2010...

I love handwork; cross stitch, embroidery, needle felting, crewel work, punch needle, you name it. If it involves using your hands to create with needle, thread, and fiber I love it. I have also been experimenting with collage, but I have was never really satisfied with my results. Then one day I decided I was going to add some cross stitch to my collage...

I was truly pleased with the way this turned out. I put it on the wall above my desk at work. (The cross stitch design is from the Feb. 2009 issue of Cross Country Stitching, no designer's name was given but it was designed for Jeremiah Junction.) I keep trying to think of things to create that will be quick and easy. But the reality is I really love doing handwork, and that just takes time. There is no "quick" way to cross stitch!

I have been embroidering on painted dryer sheets for some time. It's cheap, creative, and very versatile. I can embroider a design on a dryer sheet, (I usually fuse my painted dryer sheets to light weight interfacing, this gives them a little bit of weight) then cut that design out and incorporate it into a collage, or sew it to fabric, or frame it, there are tons of possibilities...

This is one I did with a picture of Fiona and Alexa playing dress up. I even took little scraps from the dresses they had on in the picture and added them to the collage. I then embroidered different designs that reminded me of the two of them; a tiara and a wand, a guitar (thanks to Hannah Montanna!), and of course a mirror... This too hangs on the wall above my desk at work.

There is just something about the stillness of hand stitching that eases my mind. I love nothing better than to get up in the wee hours of the morning, when all is still, and sit, with my coffee and do some hand stitching. It doesn't matter whether I'm working on cross stitch, embroidery or needle felting, it's all wonderful. Here's to a Blessed 2010...