My Poinsettia Cross-Stitch

We did something new in Embroidery Club last Monday...machine embroidery cross stitch.

Many years ago I hand-crossed stitched two little projects.

They were cute but it took forever to hand-stitch all those little x's. 

Machine cross stitch is faster.  

Our instructor gave us a link (click here) to download some beautiful flower on-line cross stitch designs called "2011 Teacup Posies" prior to the class.

(color chart here)

I downloaded two designs with red flowers:  August's "Poppies" and December's "Poinsettia"...cuz ya know I love red. 

Traditionally hand cross-stitch is stitched in flat cotton threads not shiny embroidery threads.  

To prepare for the class I gathered several shades of different cotton and polyester threads in red and green from my stash.  

Some of these threads hadn't been touched in decades and were dusty and some were so old they were on "wooden" spools.

  

The design I picked…December's "Poinsettia" had 26 color changes and over 33,000 stitches.  

Between each color change you had to manually cut the thread jumps.  

And there were a lot of thread jumps...seemed like a billion.

Even though my machine's embroidery screen said the design would stitch out in about an hour it actually took several hours with changing thread colors and manually cutting all the thread jumps.

But it's still faster than hand cross-stitch! 

You need color variation on cross stitch or the design will disappear.

This happened to one of the ladies in our class who didn't follow the correct color threads chart and her design disappeared into a muddle of threads.    

Luckily I had enough color shades so my design stitched out beautifully.   

Maybe I should make another one?  

Our instructor set out a whole table of beautiful cross-stitch design packets to purchase.  

I couldn't help myself.  

I can't pass up the Christmas designs.  

I bought three of the Sudberry Christmas Classics cross-stitch packets because they included cute Santa Claus designs.

  

There are six really cute Santa Clauses that would be adorable in a quilted wall hanging.

I would have to start early to complete them!

That's all for today.  

Thanks for visiting.

Hope Springs Eternal

Yesterday we drove to Cabela's, a huge fishing and hunting store, that is about two hours north of us.

  

We ate lunch at a nearby Cracker Barrel and then shopped from noon to three o'clock…mainly looking for lightweight summer rain jackets for our upcoming trip to Italy.

We hit rush hour traffic coming home…it took us three hours to get home!

We pick up some takeout for supper and needless to say I was pooped after five hours in the car plus three hours shopping and went to bed before ten o'clock.

  

The photos are my latest "Party with Patrick" project for April…

Hope Springs Eternal.

I did something different on this quilted piece.

I quilted four different flower designs around the butterflies.

Aren't they cute?

I love the fabrics I picked.

 I really enjoyed sewing, quilting and appliquéing this mini wall hanging. 

The background fabrics all have butterflies in them and I love how the appliqué butterflies pop out with the bright chevron fabrics (purchased at Joanne's Fabric Store). 

What do you think of the striped binding? 

It's in the same color way as the other fabrics and adds even more interest.  

We've had mostly rain, some sun and overcast cloudy days with a cool breeze so far this month.  

I sure "hope" SPRING springs eternal...someday!

May Day!

I'm so glad it is May!

"May" the weather improve for everyone.  

We still have our heat on here believe it or not. 

I have been busy.  

I finished "pink delight", the pink, gray, white and turquoise throw for my niece. 

Sorry about the burry photos. 

Very rainy here with dark days when I took most of the photos.

The only thing left is embroidering a label.  

Should I wait until Christmas to give it to her?

Yesterday I pieced together April's "Party with Patrick" project, "Hope Springs Eternal", a mini wall hanging.

  

I used a few fabric fat quarters with butterfly designs for the background and different colored chevon fabrics fat quarters for the butterfly wings. 

I quilted various flowers in pink thread because you can't have butterflies without flowers. 

Deciding on and placement of the quilted flower designs.

The next and final step is cutting out the binding and sewing it on.

It's looking pretty!

I hope to finish it this week. 

We have workmen here today replacing several window glass panes that went bad with condensation.  

One replaced is our large foyer middle window.  

So nice to have clear glass again. 

So what have you been up to this fine May Day?