Feeling Crafty

I love cross-stitch at any time of year; somehow Autumn brings even more enjoyment to this hobby.  An ideal scenario is watching football and stitching!  So, it's time for an update on a few projects!

My January 14 post was the last time I shared progress on the Christmas stocking for #1 Son - see the picture below.

 On March 29, it looked like this:

Now, with 287 hours of love invested, I am putting the finishing touches in place.  Outlining, details such as trees and grass.  The most challenging element is stitching with the gold metallic thread for the sled and the edges of the ribbon - it's very fiddly!

My February 11 post featured a completed hexagon stitch-a-long.  Today, I am happy to show you the framed piece, which now hangs in our guest bathroom!  The experts at Michael's were invaluable in selecting the mat and the frame.

In the same post, I also described the process of selecting a pattern creator in order to develop a design of a wedding photo for #1 Daughter and our son-in-law.  After some deliberation, I went with Gail at Busy B Crafts (creator of Stitch a Photo).  She had offered so much free advice, and was also recommended by the owners of Shepherds' Bush, cross-stitch experts that I trust!  This is the photo the couple chose.

#1 Daughter selected a Natural Rustico fabric - probably only a quarter of an inch will show around the final piece, which will be 11 x 14.  I am very excited to start stitching once the stocking is complete! 

 

 

 

I recently hosted a Munch and Make, and one of the attendees had a new quilt to share.  She is a member of the Flathead Quilters' Guild, and its annual quilt show had just wrapped up.  Below is a selection of the quilts that I saw at the 2024 Flathead Quilters' Guild Quilt Show.

Maker and Quilter: Lea White

Maker and Quilter: Marci Robman

Maker: Mary Iverson  Quilter: Susan Gilman

Well, it's time to get back to my stitching!  

Linking up with a few blogging buddies this week!

Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Prompt for this week is: Do you like hayrides?  Tell us about one you experienced.  I believe the last hayride would have been with the kids when they were young enough to actively participate in pumpkin hunting in an open field.  I love those fall traditions when it can be enjoyed with extended family, even if they are all adults!

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching

 

Linking to Mosaic Monday

Wedding Bells!

Love. Nostalgia. Joy.  Fulfillment.  Pride.  Just a few of the emotions that I felt on October 14, 2023, at the gorgeous wedding of #1 Daughter and the Fiance in Cincinnati, Ohio.

If you have been following my blog for a while, you will remember my post The Engagement from November 2021.  Yes, the wedding was two years in the planning!  And I am so proud of our daughter and her fiance - they had a vision for the wedding, and they fulfilled that dream.  A rustic venue.  An outdoor ceremony.  A wedding that would be fun, fun, fun! 

And did I mention that they also bought a house in the last 6 months?  But that's another story!

I am probably biased, but I think that the wedding and associated celebrations had many personal elements that made it unique.  Maybe it's the crafty nature of our family to give gifts that are hand-made.  Maybe it's our daughter's romantic nature that resulted in so many nostalgic moments.  Whatever the cause, these moments brought out the tears and the smiles in almost equal measure.

One of my sisters-in-law designed and hand-crafted a quilt, presenting it to the couple a few weekends before the wedding.  Can you tell how much they love it?

We were thrilled and relieved that my in-laws could travel from England for the wedding.  The icing on the cake?  That our daughter and her fiance could host all of us in their new house!  When they began their house-hunting process, that was their dream - and it was a blast being under one roof rather than in separate hotel rooms!

My in-laws brought this hand-made wooden "book", a gift from my husband's only cousin and her wife - they live in England and could not make it to the ceremony.

My youngest brother hand-delivered a carved bear, which holds a plaque displaying their name and wedding date.  My brother has been in the business of selling these bears for many years, and it is a special day when you receive a bear of your own.

Before my Mom passed away, she made afghans for each of her grandchildren, and these gifts were presented to them at their respective weddings.  Our daughter was one of five grandchildren yet to be married, and my oldest sister is the keeper of the afghans until each marriage happens.  Immediately after this photo, we were all sobbing.  I am tearing up even as I type these words - Mom, I wish you could have been there!

My oldest sister, a former florist, collaborated with our daughter on the floral design for the wedding, and was instrumental in setting up the venue the day before.  Her bouquets and other floral details were stunning.  How appropriate that she also gave the couple a floral afghan that she had originally made for my Mom many years ago.

I was very touched that our daughter found several ways to remember my Mom on her wedding day.  My Mom wore a satin headband for her wedding, and it was adorned with many seed pearls.  Our daughter incorporated some of those pearls into her hairpiece and earrings.  Imagine my delight (and the tears) when she presented me with this hand-made brooch at the rehearsal dinner.

It is well-known in our family that we cry at weddings, and with that in mind, I set out to create a handkerchief that our daughter could use during the ceremony.  In the end, the one I made was too ornate for wedding make-up (!), so I made a second, simpler one for her to use (not pictured).

 

"Something borrowed, something blue."  Our daughter had seen her Nan's wedding photos, and one of them had Nan showing some leg with the garter in full view.  Nan gave our daughter this garter, and the photographer re-created the photo per our daughter's request.

 

 

 

To highlight her accessories, our daughter created this tableau for the photographer.   I love how it captures so many of the nostalgic items in this post.

 Congratulations to the newlyweds!

******

Linking to LeeAnna's Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.  Prompt for November 2: Would you rather go on a hayride or visit a corn maze?

I would rather visit a corn maze - something active that engages my brain.  And it's fun!  We have done both in yesteryears, when the kids were young.  The hayride was typically a transportation method to the pumpkin patch or the Christmas tree farm.  I always loved the horses pulling the wagon!

Linking to Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday #146: Hope

Everywhere I turn, I see signs of despair.  Perhaps despair is too strong a word - maybe it's sadness.  A quiet resignation that things are not going well, with the accompanying sense that it is beyond our control.  A deep concern about events across the globe.  And your political party or country doesn't seem to matter - everyone seems to think the world is in trouble!  So, I decided to write a post about hope.  Actually, I am highlighting quotes from other people, people much smarter than me.  I "hope" that this shines a little light into your day!

 

"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  Isaiah 40:31

 "All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."  Winston Churchill

 

"You can't go back and change the beginning but you can start from where you are and change the ending."  C.S. Lewis

 

"Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage.  Anger at the way things are and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are."  Saint Augustine

 

*In Montana, open range is the default position.  So, if you don't want cattle grazing your property, you have to fence them out.  Imagine my dismay to see this cow (and several others) show up on my trail cam.  This meant they had gotten through some fencing!  No damage was done, and my husband and a neighbor repaired the fence that we think was the entry point.

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."  Lin Yutang

 

"Hope is the ocean for the river, the sun for the trees and the sky for us."  Maxime Lagace

 

"You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own."  Michelle Obama

 

"Sometimes your only available form of transportation is a leap of faith."  Margaret Shepard

 

*Quilts at the Northwest Montana Fair

"Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning."  Gloria Steinem

 

 

 

 

 

"If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others."  Plato

 

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

"Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it."  Barack Obama

 

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."  Maya Angelou

 

 

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us. 

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