Christmas House

Hello!

Today I took a break from the sewing and finished a cross stitch project that took me a while to make: A Christmas house!

The patterns are by Perrette Samouiloff.
It was fun to stitch, and not very hard, really. The hard part was to choose the designs, and to count the stitches to make sure they would fit. I had to find some small designs to fill the empty spots. I think that was the most difficult part.  But I love how it looks!

The attic is full of secrets. They are hiding the presents. I added more presents and the teddy in a box to balance things a bit.

Now, the middle part of the house.
This little boy holding the hearts is adorable!  I stitched some ornaments to fill the spaces.

The little girls. They are so cute! The one holding the teddy bear is my favorite.  Here I added the cat, the presents, and the ornaments.

The living room. I just had to add some more presents to fill the spaces and join the two designs together. That's the fun thing with Perrette's patterns. There are several small designs in one pattern. You stitch all or as many as you want.

I had this frame for a long time. It's from a kit by Bucilla. I decided not to stitch the kit, and stitch these little kids instead.  I painted the frame red, and made several changes to make things more colorful. The original colors were a bit too dark for my taste.

I glued a piece of red felt on the back to make a nice finish.  A mini wreath on the top of the house  finishes the look.
Brenda helped me picking the colors and designs for this project, and she loves the finished piece!  Now, let's put it way until Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Have a great week!

Ana Paula.

A Library Bag and a Door Stopper.

Hello!

I am working hard on finishing several sewing projects. Lots more to go!
Here are the two I just finished this week.
First, a denim library bag.

I have a storage container full of denim, mostly Brenda's. We donate a lot of her clothes when she outgrows them, but I still save many. I normally make bermudas of the jeans that get too short on her. So, I had lots of half legs of jeans.
Anyways, I wanted to make a new library bag, the old one was so ugly!  I made a pretty one for Brenda last Christmas, so ours was looking even worse.
We are big library people. We go every week for books and movies. Now that Brenda got the Harry Potter bug, she gets anything Harry related.
I saw a nice recycled denim bag on Pinterest. This is my version of it. There was no pattern, I just made up my own.

I had to cut one of my old jeans. No way it was going to fit me anymore.
I used cotton batting and a blue and white floral fabric for lining. I came out very sturdy, and we were able to use it on the same day I made it. Cool!
There will be more bags soon...I need to use all that denim.
My other project is this door stopper.

It was also made to substitute an old one. I used corduroy and a piece of this patchwork looking fabric. It made it faster, the pattern has a 9 patch block instead. This door stopper has a zipper on the bottom, so you can wash it. I really like this style, I think I will always make this one. If you want make it too, here is the tutorial from Lark Crafts.

Here  is the back. I need a little more dried peas to make it fuller.
That's it for today!  Back to the sewing machine.
Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!


Ana Paula.

Patchwork Christmas Stockings

Hello!

I know... funny posting Christmas stockings in April.
I wanted to make them last year, but I got busy, and never made them.
Now, here they are!

I love the Scandinavian look. The matching stockings had to be red and white.
There are several online tutorials on how to make stockings like these. Here is one I like.
The quilt as you go style is the best. Very fast and easy. It's a no brainier.
The pattern for the stocking shape I got from one of my Holiday crafts magazines. I find it very hard to draw the pattern myself. I love this shape, not the old booty one!

The hard part for me was to attach the cuff. It was very bulky, It took me a while pinning and ripping seams. But I love the way they look! My family finally has matching stockings!
I made a stocking for Brenda when she was little, but never made for me and my husband. We had some old plaid ones for a while, borrowed from my MIL. I returned them so I could have a real reason to make our own. I did it now.

I like how they are similar but different. I collected red and white fabrics for a while to be able to make some projects, including these stockings. Not easy, Joann's has a small selection. A couple of years ago they had some new ones, and I got some. Besides Joann's, I only have one more fabric store near by. Sometimes I get lucky there. Sometimes on e-bay.

This is the fabric I picked for the back of the stockings, a cute peppermint candy print.

Now I just need to get some wooden letters to personalize them. I like this idea.
I am very pleased with our new stockings! It's so nice when a project comes out the way you imagined it!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by my blog!

Ana Paula.

Lavender Girl

Hello! Just a little post to share something I made this week.

This is Lavender Girl from Snowflower Diaries.
I made some changes, specially using DMC in lighter colors.

I also used light lavender beads. It's now displayed  in my cubby shelf.

I am still working on filling the shelf for spring.

So, I need to stitch some more ornaments... so hard to choose the patterns.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ana Paula.