A Little Kitchen Addition ~ April 26, 2019

Hello Stitchy Friends!

This past Christmas I received a set of beautifully stitched hand embroidered towels from my Grandma, and since receiving them I have been on the hunt for the perfect way to display them.  I searched high and low for months, trying to find just the right thing.  Typing in different keywords and searching outside the box...well one day I found a few pins on Pinterest that were perfect...and they used..of all things...a vintage cheese grater!  In the first pin, they hung homemade candles from the handle and put flowers in the top.  In the second pin they had a regular towel hanging by the handle...So I merged the two ideas in my mind.  The only thing left to do was track down a vintage cheese grater!  You would think that task alone would be easy, but it was harder than I thought!  I even looked for the 'vintage looking' cheese graters at Hobby Lobby, but they didn't have any left.  I'd begun thinking I would need to haunt the Senior Estates garage sales this Summer.  Then about two weeks ago, I was having lunch with my Grandma and I told her about my idea.  I didn't want her to think I didn't love and appreciate her hand stitched towels.  Guess what? She had a cheese grater she was willing to part with! 

She brought the cheese grater over a few days later!  Boy did I do a happy dance!  But then I got to looking in my kitchen and I felt like, I really needed some new curtains to go with it...so Amazon to the rescue! I scored some cute gingham curtains that are edged with vintage style lace...and I love them!  Once my curtains were hung, I attached my cute cheese grater towel hanger...complete with one of the sweet hand embroidered towels!

I picked the one out that said 'Spring Time' to me!  So adorable!!

My sweet daughter Allison helped me pick out the perfect flowers to go with it!  They were 60% off at Joann's..a steal!

I love how it all came together!!  I used a Command Hook to hang up my cheese grater, so as not to put a hole in my cabinet.  Now I can change out the towels with the seasons as well as the flowers! 

See you soon!
Olivia
xx

Another Spring Finish! ~ April 23, 2019

Looks like another busy week here in the land of Pumpkin Hollow!  Between quilting for clients and sewing project bags for my Etsy Shop, life in my tiny corner of the world is flying by in a whirl of colors!  But I did find a few minutes last week to FFO one little project...

If you've followed my journey here on the blog, you might recognize the wooden box!  This is the box I found up in our attic last Spring and painted a light grey color.  Then I stitched the various seasons put out by Plum Street Samplers(Hello Summer, Fall and Winter..etc).  

I really love how it turned out!  The linen is a 36 count Tarnished Silver by Lakeside Linens and it's stitched with a variety of GAST, CC and DMC Threads. I mounted it and a piece of black gingham fabric to mat board.  I glued those pieces together with Aleene's Tacky Glue and hot glued washers to the back.  Then it was ready to attached to the two magnets already on the box.  I filled the box with flowers that I already had in my stash and a burlap ribbon.  

The whole series was a joy to stitch!  

I also realized that I forgot to post a picture of my Spring Seasonal Tree.  It'll stay decorated for Spring for a few more weeks and then I'll change it to an Americana Tree to celebrate Summer!  

Also, new this week is my recent FlossTube Video!  

Until next time my Stitchy Friends!

Happy Stitching
Olivia
xx

Queen Of Freedom Progress ~ April 18, 2019

Hello Stitchy Friends!

I always mean to post more progress pictures here on my blog, but I almost always forget!  However today I was sitting here thinking about what to say in my next Flosstube video and I realized it's the perfect opportunity to post a few pictures of my Queen of Freedom by Mirabilia progress.

I started Queen of Freedom a few months ago, and then she spent some time hanging out until late March when I decided it was time to work on her again.  Luckily I'm stitching her with a wonderful Instagram friend Kristie, who is @crosshatchquilts!  Together we are keeping each other motivated to finish.  

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have already seen this latest picture of my progress.  I've gotten a little farther since I took this pic earlier in the week.  I absolutely love how she's slowly coming to life! I've decided that during Stitch Maynia, she'll stay kitted up...that way I can just grab her and stitch, so I can keep making progress.  My goal by the end of April is to have the top half finished...I'd love to see her face come to life!  

I'm stitching her on a piece of 32 count Vintage Sahara with all the called for DMC Threads and Krienik.

Happy Stitching

Olivia

xx

April Word Play ~ April 17, 2019

Hello Stitchy Friends!

This past weekend I was able to carve out some time and finish a couple of stitchy things!  I know not so long ago I showed you my April Word Play by With Thy Needle and Thread, that I'd finished stitching on..

 On Sunday, after my quilty friends went home, I decided it was the perfect time to fully finish it!!

 Didn't it turn out great?!  It was the first time I'd FFO'd a larger stitched piece into a pillow, so I definitely was a little nervous about how the finish would look. I tried to find seam binding to use as my ruffle, but couldn't find any that fit my budget.  So instead I found a sort of silky vintage style ribbon at Michaels and I really love the look of it! 

I plan on stitching all of the Word Plays and finishing them into pillows, currently I'm waiting on May's chart to arrive at Acorns and Threads.  I can't wait to go back!

Happy Stitching!
Olivia
xx

FlossTube #7 ~ Stitchy Notes!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Today's blog post is all about the fun stitchy stuff I chatted about on my latest FlossTube video..If you haven't seen it yet, click on the link below!



Join Deborah of canopiedstitches and me for our upcoming stitch-a-long starting on June 1st!  We will be stitching Blackbird Designs, Cherry Baskets, using the hashtag #bbcherrybasket on Instagram.

Then on July 1st we will start our second stitch-a-long Sally Spencer Sampler by Birds of a Feather!  The hashtag for that will be #bofsallysummerstitching.

We would love to have you join us! 

Finishes shown in my video:
Hello Spring by Plum Street Samplers - I did a blog post a few days ago and include all the color conversions I used...click here
April Word Play by With thy Needle and Thread..stitched on 36 count Winter Moon with GAST and CC Threads that I substituted for colors I was missing: Evergreen, Parchment, Lambswool, Soot, Burnt Orange, Flax, CC Blackbird, Ohio Lemon Pie, CC Honeycomb.

Flosstubers mentioned:
Megan The Wide Eyed Stitcher
Jo's Country Junction
Mischievous Stitches

Quilt shown:
Spring Fling Mini 2015

Thanks so much for stopping by today! If you have any questions, let me know!

Happy Stitching
Olivia
xx

April Word Play ~ April 4, 2019

I've been meaning to post my April Word Play finish for a few days now, but life in general has been a busy one.  I feel like the days are just slipping past in a whirl of color!

I started April Word Play by With Thy Needle and Thread on March 24th.  I decided to stitch it on a piece of 36 count Winter Moon that I had in my small stash of linen.  I ended up changing about half of the colors, but used all hand dyed flosses by GAST and CC.  

I was able to finish it on April 1st!  It turned out so cute and now it just waits to be fully finished!  I hope to work on that over this coming weekend.  It's supposed to be a rainy one, so that's perfect for working on getting a few of my finished Spring stitches completely finished.  After I finished stitching this one, I decided to spend a few days working on my Queen of Freedom by Mirabella.  It gave me a great opportunity to use my new scroll rods, which I will talk about in my next FlossTube video...so stay tuned!

Happy Stitching

Olivia

xx