Easter

Hello!

Hope everybody had a great Easter with family and friends.
I am a little late, but better late than never...

I finished this little Lizzie Kate ornament just before Easter. I always wanted to stitch this design and finally got it done!

It looks cute with my Easter decor.

Decorating for Easter is so much fun! I love to look at all the pretty spring things at the stores. So many temptations, but I am controlling myself very well. When you live in a small place, you have to, or the clutter takes over.

And here is the chocolate/coconut cake roll I made for Easter. Delicious and very rich!
Got to go now...so many things to do.
Have a blessed week!

Ana Paula.

A Robin

Hello!
I have a small finish to show.

The light is bad, and I wish I had stitched it on darker blue fabric, the white branches would show better... This is a pattern from Christiane Dahlbeck.
I made several changes, because of the aida fabric. The design has half stitches that would only work on linen. Very different half stitches. Well, I will have to live with it.

I wanted to use a small frame for this design. Could not find anything that worked at Michael's.
But I found this  laser cut frame at the wood aisle. I think it was about two dollars, no more than that. I spray painted white,  and because it is a flat frame, I had to do a little trick to finish the ornament.
I wish I had pictures.
I got a piece of white cardboard just a bit bigger than the frame opening and put it on the back of the stitched piece, folding the edges of the fabric to the back of the cardboard and gluing it with Tacky Glue.
After that,  I put a thin line of glue around the back of the opening of the frame and carefully pressed  the stitched piece against it.
To finish the back I glued white felt on the back of the cardboard.
The finished ornament has to lay on something to stand, but you can make a stand to the back using cardboard, or even glue a ribbon to hang.
I hope my directions are clear enough.
I just love this little frame, is so delicate! I think I will have more finishes like this.
It was the first robin I ever stitched, and I want to stitch some more. I love robins, never saw a real one, but I think they are just adorable, specially the European one.
The robin on The Secret Garden movie (I love it!) and Beatrix Potter's robin on her Peter Rabbit story
are my favorites.
Since I only have sparrows here in my courtyard, I got the robin figurine on the picture above at a gift shop in San Diego. He is darling!
Anyways, that was my first robin cross stitch, and the first ornament for my cubby shelf from my previous post.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Ana Paula.

Heart Sachet

Hello! My last post was a little over a month ago!  I have being busy with a million things, including  organizing my home and and trying to do a little clean-up on the blog. 
Blogger gives me hard time, I took forever to fix some problems.
Today I was finally able to make this Cross Stitch sachet and write a post.

I stitched this bird on the early ninety's. It was stitched on a blouse I used for years.

I saved the bird and now I finally turned it unto something. I used denim, blue polka dot fabric, and lace trim. I like how it looks, not bad for a piece of cross stitch from an old blouse, don't you think?
The bird pattern is from a Verena Burda magazine in German.  When I moved to America almost ten years ago, I was not able to bring my collection of Cross Stitch magazines with me.
 When I went back to I visit my family in Brazil four years ago, I ripped off my favorite pages from the magazines I left behind, and now I keep them in binders.

They are old, but have many lovely patterns!

Anyways, after over a month without posting I have some other photos to share.

A couple of CTR towels.

Valentine's Day.

 

And the early Spring on my little garden.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Ana Paula.

My Cross Stitch Goal for 2012

Hello!
Some months ago I was able to get a great bargain on e-bay : Lizzie Kate's flip-it stamps.
My goal is make one a month.  I just finished January.

I changed the colors to mostly blue, inspired by this ornament .  The trim is ruched ribbon.
The pattern came with 3 tiny buttons but I decided to use snowflakes instead, like on  the ornament  I was copying :)  But, I was not able to find such small snowflake buttons like hers. I had to use just one.
I finished it as a flat ornament, and the fabric on the background is the one I used on the back of the ornament.
I love this design and I am so pleased on how it looks after finished. I love it!

This has been a busy month, and I am happy I was able to finish it before January is over.
The plan is to display a new ornament on a little easel every month.  Eleven more to go!
Thanks for stopping by!
Ana Paula.

My January ornament

Well, it is a very easy one. But it is cute.
This is "Le roi des rennes". I made some changes, leaving out a crown and a bow on his neck.
I have no idea who the designer is.
I had it on my freebies folder, but there is no designer name anywhere. I am sorry.
Thanks for stopping by.
Ana Paula.

Christmas in July

I finished 2 new cross stitch ornaments for my tree.

The first one is from an old Brazilian magazine with American patterns. I have no idea who the designer is. I changed some of the colors and finished as a round ornament . I think it came out pretty cute, being such a simple design. I always liked this.

The second ornament is  Renne de Noel, a freebie from a french blog.  An easy and cute design that I finished as a pillow ornament.
We had a 4 feet fake tree since we got married, then last January we got a taller one at Wallmart. I am very excited planning to make lots of ornaments for the new tree.
When I lived in Brazil I had several cross stich ornaments. Here I had none on the old tree. It was crowded with ornaments of all kinds, but no cross stitch. These are my first ones. I don't know why, but I never made even one. I guess was because the tree was too small.