Miscellaneous Needlework

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I saw a similar cat pillow for sale in a *ahem* catalog. It looked cute, but seemed too simple to be worth the price tag they put on it. So I designed my own. This is fairly old, and there were very few Christmas prints available- cotton prints were in general uncommon.(Maybe this was done in 1985 or thereabouts?) So quite a bit of it is polyester, which is why it still looks so good. I've now got tons of printed cottons, and they are lovely to work with and traditional, but I know they'll never last half as long as polyester. But they're so pretty! And come in every conceivable print. While I didn't buy them, I have seen a printed cotton with pigs on motorcycles and another with cats in Egyptian costumes.

Again, I saw this in a catalog. The fish I saw didn't have a 3-D fin and was only detailed on one side, My fish look the same on both sides. I made others, but most of them have gone to new homes. I should see if I can find the pattern I made and make more. They all turned out really cute.

I don't quite know why, but I think of this fish as a salmon. The eyes were felt circles bought as a bag of mixed bits. The white rings are curtain rings. They are meant to be used as pot-holders. The top one has a few marks on him from his service in that capacity.

(Okay, they're not needlework, but at the time I added these pictures I wasn't intending to put up a Christmas decorations page... not until I looked around and realized how much there was. I don't like moving things once they're up, so I'm leaving them here.) Last year (2003) I noticed our two door wreaths were in pretty sad shape. So I bought a package of fake pine garland, cut it in half (half for each wreath) and decorated it with scavenged floral picks saved from holiday bouquets over the years, and the fabric poinsettias from several worn-out plastic mats meant to fit under table-lamps and made a pair of wreaths. So I'm not Martha Stewart, but I was pleased with the results.

They didn't turn out half bad. Maybe next year I'll add something to them, but probably not. The simple look appeals to me. The center of this one is a battery-powered motion-detecting Santa that greets folks with a 'ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!'. It's a bit odd to have a head in the middle of your wreath, but I thought it worked.

This was made from a pattern and instructions in a women's magazine (back in the days when the crafts involved more than 'buy this and glue that on it'.) I think it was from 1968, or thereabouts, although I didn't make this until many years later. I had to wait for the magazine to ripen. The geranium 'pot' extends up in an elongated triangle shape, and the leaves and blossoms are each entirely separate and stick on by velcro. It was intended as pot-holders, but mom wouldn't use them because she didn't want them to get dirty. There's a ring at the top of the 'pot', so the whole thing hangs up in the kitchen and looks decorative. Well, it would look decorative, but it's been there so long, it's turned invisible.

In 2004, I've been doing a lot of embroidering while on the computer. This was a kit from the thrift store. I've found some really nice kits there from time to time. People buy them and never get 'round to doing them I guess. It took over a month, and when it was done, I found the perfect lace (a multi-colored floral) in my collection to sew around it. This table runner is 44 inches long, so I haven't been able to show the detail, but the thread was very shiny, which gives a lifelike 'glow' to the petals and leaves. I had to take 3 photos and put them together- it's really straight, not wobbly and distorted the way it looks here.

I made 4 of these vests in 2004. Yes, they were a length of pre-printed fabric from the thrift store. This year I've used up most of my sack of thrift store kits and panels. Thisis good, because now I can go back and hunt for more. I believe thrift store shopping is the female equivalent of big-game hunting. The thrill of the chase! The exhilation as you spy something across the aisle! The disappointment as another hunter bags your prey, or you find on closer inspection that it's not of trophy quality. The happy weariness as you return home laden with your catch...

Each vest is slightly different (well, they're of several different sizes, for one thing). Also, I didn't have enough of any one material that I liked to line them all the same. I made them reversable, so they could be worn at least a little while before and after Christmas. I added rhinestones, rhinestone hearts, gold-tone heart studs, ribbon, sequins and beads to accentuate them. Glitz and glitter!