2012 Projects

By the time 2012 rolled around, I had seriously lost my needlework mojo; I only completed two needlework projects. I did, however, get interested in Zentangle towards the end of 2012 and that interest carried over into 2013.

APR. 2012 — FOXY SWEETHEARTS: By this point, I’d embroidered pillowcases for both my husband and my son, so next up was embellishing a pillowcase for myself. This design is from Urban Threads.

04-2012 Foxy Sweethearts

JULY 2012 — INFINITY MARIO & LUIGI: This was a fun stitchy gift. I can’t find the link to the pattern (which I think was a freebie), but it can probably be found by rabbit-hole’ing google or pinterest.

07-2012 Infinity Mario & Luigi

NOV. 2012 — “ART EVERY DAY” MONTH—>ZENTANGLE: These were my two favorites of the projects I drew during “art every day” month. The Cats & Dogs design is actually an Urban Threads embroidery pattern, but it worked great for zentangle. The second design was free-handed and lightly water-colored.

11-2012 Art Every Day month 11-5-2012

11-2012 Art Every Day month 11-9-2012

2011 Projects

2011 was another light-on-the-handcrafts year, with just a smattering of projects.

MAR. 2011 — HEART ON A STRING: This is a project I contributed to a giveaway basket put together by my local EGA. The pattern is from June at Noon. (Gretchen also has an Etsy store by the same name, but it’s on hiatus as of the date of this blog post.)

03-2011 Heart on a String

APRIL 2011 — MICKEY & SHRINER’S HANKIES: I think the golfing Mickey was a freebie coloring book page; the Shriners’ image is actually the Shriners’ logo.

MAY 2011 — SQUIRREL WITH FLOWER: My notes on the photo say this was for the “vintage patterns stitch-along”, so it was likely for one of the vintage-patterns groups on Flickr. This is one of the few things I’d made for myself back in the 2008-2011 period.

05-2011 Squirrel with Flower -- Vintage Pattern Stitch-a-Long

JUNE 2011 — FATHER & SON HANDPRINTS: I had seen this idea all over the place, so made it for my husband for Father’s Day 2011. In hindsight, I’m so glad I included my husband’s and son’s ages on there.

06-2011 Father's Day Handprints

OCT. 2011 — HOME IS WHERE THE CONTROLLER IS: Back in 2011, the Xbox was being used hard and heavy by the fellas in our household. So I commemorated that time in our lives with this freebie cross-stitch design from the Domestic Scientist blog. I made a few color tweaks to the controller buttons to jive with our Xbox controllers.

10-2011 Home Is ... Xbox

NOV. 2011 — VICTORIAN HEART PINCUSHION: Back in 2011, I participated a little bit in a yahoo group called StitchMAP (info HERE). I’m not sure how active the group is, currently, and I didn’t participate in the group for terribly long back in the day, but I did participate long enough to make this Victorian heart pincushion for myself. I loooooved doing all those french knots!! I do like me some french knots :D.

11-2011 Victorian Heart Pincushion 001

11-2011 Victorian Heart Pincushion 002

DEC. 2011 — CAT TREE ORNAMENT: I love the Brittercup cross-stitch designs! This was made for a holiday needlework swap.

12-2011 cat tree ornament

DEC. 2011 — LEGEND OF ZELDA PILLOWCASE: I ended the year with some Legend of Zelda love. This was a fun stitch, and I was so happy with how it turned out. This was another of our embroidered pillowcases which was used until it fell to pieces after so many launderings!

12-2011 Legend of Zelda Pillowcase

2010 Projects

I hit crafting burn-out at the end of 2009, so most of 2010 was a long, dry spell. However, I did gear up as the holidays approached and made some gifts for a handful of people.

MAY 2010 — LEG LAMP: Inspired by the iconic leg lamp from A Christmas Story :D. I had a blast stitching this one up. Instead of filling the lampshade with stitches, I used fabric.

05-2010 leglamp001

05-2010 leglamp002

SEPT. 2009 — MINI SKETCHBOOK/COLORED PENCILS KIT: The cherry-fabric kit was my trial run, which I kept for myself, and the faux-fur kit was a gift for someone else. These were a good challenge for my very beginnerish sewing skills, and I was happy with how they both turned out…but they’re not a project I care to make again!

mini sketchbook kit 2010 - all tied up mini sketchbook kit 2010 - showing sketchpad & pencils

llexi's sketchbook kit 2010 - closed

llexi's sketchbook kit 2010 - open

HOLIDAYS 2010 — FOR MY HUBBY: The coffee coaster and the pillowcase were both used until they were plum worn out, which is exactly what I intend when I gift things which are designed to be useful! The name tag was my design, and the camping designs were Sublime Stitching.

11-2010 coffee cup coaster

11-2010 Rodney's pillowcase 001

11-2010 Rodney's pillowcase

HOLIDAYS 2010 — FOR MY SON: Lots of reading was happening, so bookmarks were a good option. I particularly loved the pirate’s french-knot beard & hair! The ninja/pirate pattern was Urban Threads, and I believe the video game characters were from Sprite Stitch.

11-2010 ninja vs pirate bookmark 001

11-2010 ninja vs pirate bookmark 002

11-2010 peek-a-boo bookmark

11-2010 pacman bookmark

HOLIDAYS 2010 — FOR OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS & FRIENDS: The dog patterns were freebies from the Orange You Lucky blog (although I don’t know if the patterns are available any longer). I can’t find the source info for the Poinsettia pattern. The Snowflake pattern is Polka & Bloom. The Dove pattern is September House (So September blog). The Speckled Bird pattern is Andrea Zuill. I can’t find the source info for the Mama-n-Baby Bird pattern.

11-2010 daschund ornament 001

11-2010 daschund ornament 002

11-2010 poinsettia mandala ornament

12-2010 snowflake

12-2010 dove for EGA ornament exchange

12-2010 hankies for the grandmas

12-2010 speckled bird hankie

2009 Needlework: Part 3

Continuing from where I left off from 2009 Needlework: Part 2 . . .

SEPT. 2009 — SUGAR SKULL: An Urban Threads design. I love the brightness of the fabric with this design!

09-2009 sugarskull001 - urban threads design

09-2009 sugarskull002

OCT. 2009 — HAPPY FISH (Craftster swap): This was a freebie coloring book design I used for a Tea Towel Tour.

10-2009 craftster swap

OCT. 2009 — OH LA LA! (Craftster swap): This cute gal is from the Leisure Arts “Stitchin’ Retro” booklet. The stickers on her luggage correspond to the states of all of the stitchers in our Tea Towel Tour group.

10-2009 craftster swap rectangelsapron - leisure arts booklet 'stitchin retro'

NOV. 2009 — ICE CREAM GIRL (Craftster swap): Another freebie coloring book design for the Tea Towel Tour.

11-2009 craftster swap 001

11-2009 craftster swap 002

11-2009 craftster swap 003

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not a needlework design, but I found this photo of a papercutting project I did in May 2009, using a (probably freebie) design from Fog & Thistle, which appears to no longer be an active business or website.

05-2009 rabbitpapercuttingforlaverne - fog & thistle design

2009 Needlework: Part 2

Continuing from where I left off in 2009 Needlework: Part 1 . . .

MAY 2009 — ROLLER DERBY BABE: Love her! This was an Urban Threads design, and I based her on the person to whom I gifted her. She’s crayon-tinted and embroidered, with the skate’s wheels and laces having been stitched with fluorescent floss.

05-2009 roller derby babe 001

05-2009 roller derby babe 002

JULY 2009 — CRAFTSTER SWAP (4 Napkins): These were Urban Threads designs which I stitched onto some cloth napkins from Target.

07-2009 craftster swap napkins-all - urban threads design

07-2009 craftster swap napkins-MOMtattoo

07-2009 craftster swao napkins-runswithscissors

07-2009 craftster swap napkins-bitchininthekitchen

07-2009 craftster swap napkins-skullcherries

SEPT. 2009 — GEISHA (Craftster swap): This is an Urban Threads design stitched up for my crayon-tinting inspiration, Craftster’s very own “kittykill”, for a Tea Towel Tour.

09-2009 craftster swap kittykillstowel001 - urban threads design

09-2009 craftster swap kittykillstowel002

The remaining 2009 needlework projects follow in the next post! (2009 Needlework: Part 3)