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.

Christmas Rules Finished !

Hello!

Here in Southern California is sooo hot! Right now is 92 degrees.
School started for Brenda and things are getting back into the normal routine.
I tried hard to finish my Christmas Rules before school started, but it was not possible.  So, I finished it today!

I stitched it on 14 count aida with DMC. I made some changes on the colors and also changed the space between each design. I chose to stitch only the simple border that comes on the patterns to separate the designs, skipping the "box" that half of the charts had. I think it looks less crowded this way.

It was fun to stitch. I love all the little details.

I finished it as a wall hanging / bell pull. I have some hangers that I got years ago on e-bay.  Unfortunately I only had one part on the right size, but I love it!

To finish as a bell pull, I cut a pice of Christmas print fabric of the same size of the stitched piece.
After that, I ironed interfacing on the back of the stitched piece and on the back of  the Christmas  fabric.  The next step was to sew red Ric-rac on the stitched piece around three sides, leaving only the top one.

 Now, pin the two right sides together (the stitching and the Christmas print) e sew using the Ric-rac stitch as a guideline. Trim the seams, turn, iron, and fold the top inside about 1/2 inch. Now, fold the top to the back, about one inch, depending of the kind of hanger you are using, and stitch it by hand.

 

Now, just insert the hanger, and it is ready!

 

Since this is a long piece - mine is about 30x7 inches, I found this finishing style to be very affordable and easier to store, what for me are two very good reasons to do it.
If you find my instructions hard to understand, the Twisted Stitcher has a great tutorial on her finishing blog.

Have a great week, and Happy Stitching!

Ana Paula.

Two new finishes

Hello!
I have two JBW designs finishes to share.
The first one is  Christmas Purse.

I wanted to finish it a little different. This is what I came up with.
I made a pillow using a gold dusted cotton.  With a dark red and gold fabric and the stitched piece, I made a "belt" tied with bows on both sides of the pillow.
I love the design and I think the finish looks very festive.

The second finish is  A Very Merry Christmas.

I finished it as a double flanged mini pillow. I saw some pictures of this kind of pillow finish online but could not find any tutorial. After a while I came up with my version. I am very happy with how it turned out.
I used two shades of green Christmas fabrics, and some gold buttons.

Maybe I will write a tutorial for this finish one of these days. :)
Thanks for stopping by.
Ana Paula.

Handmade Christmas Gifts

Hi!
Lots going on around here, but I managed to finish some simple handmade presents.
Hope you like my ideas and can get some inspiration.
First, a cover for Grandma's Kitchen Aid mixer. She loves chili peppers, and this was made using leftover fabric from her kitchen window valance.

A  fleece blanket for Grandpa.
We have several fleece blankets and I made all this way. Just get  two yards of fleece, machine sew the  borders  and  make a blanket stitch by hand using crochet thread.

Now, a couple of pink things I made for my Fairy Princess.

A soft and furry reversible throw for her. I just love these fabrics. One yard of each one, to make a  blanket that Fancy Nancy  would be proud of.  Sew the right sides together, turn and top stitch all around. I used a big paper heart  to sew a heart shape on the middle of the blanket to hold the two pieces together.

A  Precious Moments pillow.  I had this cross stitch piece for a while. First I planned to frame, but finally I decided to make a pillow using  left over chenille from her rag quilt that I made a couple of years ago.

Brenda loves Precious Moments. We got her some water globes when she was a baby and now she has a small collection . The one on the pictures is a favorite.

I am working on a very special gift for my sweetie. This week will be crazy, but I need to work hard on her gift, because next week she will be home from school, and will be hard to hide it from her.
Thanks for reading my blog!