The 15 Minute Project Update

Monkey French Knot Scribble 10 days later

Here’s my monkey scribble after 15 minutes a day stitching since the last posting. Can’t believe I’ve gotten this far with him. I do need to add his ears. I don’t normally add anything to a scribble but I am making an exception to this one for the ears.

Nest in Tree 

My other 15 minute project has taken a detour, I’ll explain later when I have some photos to show. But this is where it is at for now. I won’t be stitching on it for a while. Need to do some planning.

One more thing I did this week was for a special order in my Etsy shop. These are hope rocks in felt pockets. My son does the etching and I make the heart pockets. And I finished them today so they are my FIF (Finish It Friday) for this week! 

Hope Rocks in Felt Pockets

My posts will probably be sporadic for now since I will be having surgery on Monday. I hope to get back to a more normal posting schedule in a few weeks.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts!

Happy Stitching! 

Rose

I’m Here, I’m Here!

As you can see I haven’t reached my goal yet for my blog but I’m not giving up! Just having to juggle life and choices keeps me busy not to mention my grandson Jaden. I spent a couple of days this week helping a dear friend set up her Etsy account. She will be adding more items and improving her shop but you can take a look now. That was time well spent. Also spent some time waiting in doctor’s offices with my husband for follow ups on his recent hospitalization.

So here’s an update on my stitching for TAST2012.

I’ve been keeping up with the weekly stitches but I’m slow on getting them photographed and posted. So here goes!

Crossed Buttonhole Scribble Stitch

Crossed Buttonhole. I decided to stick with my scribbles and actually enjoyed doing this stitch. It took me awhile to get it right and develop a rhythm but then I was happy with it.

Half-chevron scribble stitch

Can’t say the same for the half chevron though. I was almost to the end of my scribble before I realized what I was doing wrong. I think I’ll try it again and see if I like it any better.

Bullion Stitch Scribble

And then there’s the bullion stitch. This is a stitch I first learned from by mother-in-law, Eunice Balaz, and then further expanded on it when I took some lessons in Brazilian embroidery. I really like the stitch but I haven’t used it much recently, You can view my Flickr account for older work using the bullion stitch. 

Recently I used it on my quilt guild name badge and on my February CQJ2012 block. I again decided to stitch with my scribble method and made long and short bullions along the line. The long stitches have 10 wraps and the shorter ones have 5 wraps. The thread used was a variegated pearl cotton.

Butterfly stitch scribble

Finally there’s the butterfly stitch. Oh my! I have never executed this stitch before. I think it would have worked better if I had made the straight stitches a little longer. I left my pencil scribble showing so you could see the original line I followed. I will eventually remove that line.

All of my scribbles are up on my design wall and they may make it into one cohesive piece when they are all done. I may even go back to some of the earlier stitches and do them as scribbles. We’ll see!

Thank you for taking the time to look at my work and a special hug thanks to those who leave comments!

Next I’ll show you my progress on my Crazy Quilt blocks and I plan to have another tip up on Monday. (Oh that’s tomorrow – lol – we’ll see!) I’m way behind on my 12 in 12 so I’m going to take some time to look for some simple ones to try and finish.

13. The sound of a train announcing its arrival
14. A gentle breeze blowing
15. A baby discovering his first tooth
16. Butterflies

Happy stitching!

Rose

Three weeks and counting:

Oh my, it’s the end of January and I feel like I am behind already. I should have at least thee things completed and a start on finishing my fourth. OK here’s my second item. From the before photo you might be wondering what’s to finish since they are already packaged but if you look at the one in the middle you’ll see the difference.

Needle Nabbers Photo

I have these little flowers for sale in my online shop and also at a local quilt store, Kilauea Kreations, that is popular with the tourists. Well the owner of the store mentioned to me that people were finding them to be a little on the tipsy side. Now we don’t want that to happen, do we! She showed me how she had glued a piece of round cardboard to my sample and it was stabilized.

Completed needle nabbers photo

Well I couldn’t settle for a piece of raw cardboard so I had to put my thinking cap on. I found some wood circles, painted them to match the flowerpot but that still wasn’t good enough for me. So I decided to crochet some little doilies to top the wood circles. That solved the stability problem. Now however I ran out of the paint I was using and found that none of the local stores were going to carry that brand of spray paint so I was back to thinking again. I did find some of the paint while on vacation in Texas on clearance so I purchased what the store had left and stored it with my son. I knew I wasn’t suppose to carry it on the plane back home. So I still needed a temporary solution. I considered sending the wood circles to my son, have him paint them and then send them back to me. But I really didn’t want to wait and they were earmark as a need to complete project. So then I decided to try painting them to match the doilies and flower colors. That worked! So these are ready and will be going out as gifts soon.

Unfinished white button bracelet photo

Finished white button bracelet photo

Next I decided to finish one of my crocheted cuffs with buttons. That went quick although I did have to “scrounge” through my buttons to find some more creamy white ones that would work. Going through my buttons is always a tempting process that often gets me sidetracked onto another project. I resisted this time though and was able to finish the cuff.

Now on to my next project. I received a phone call from the same quilt store requesting that I send them some more of my Needle Candies as they had sold out of them and all they had left was the sample. Wow! Then I realized that I had some already started from 2010 so they would work in perfectly. However as I was working on them (I need to make a dozen) I attempted to make a change to the little holders that I made from fabric. The stiffener I used dulled the fabric somewhat and I wanted to try and brighten them up a bit. I also wanted to add a little protection to them so I brushed them with some gloss medium and shellac. But I put too much on and they became cloudy instead of bright and shiny. So now I had to make some more from scratch. This time I’ll use a smaller brush and just do one as a test. Yes, I did all twelve the first time! I’m still working on these but hope to have them finished and in the mail to the store by Tuesday at the latest.

Needle Candies started photo

You’ll notice I’ve added a slide show to show some of the UFO projects I’ve located while trying to clean and organize my crafting space. Not up to 52 yet but getting close. And actually I could list some that are now grouped together as individual projects. I decided to group some of them because I was stumped on how to do the next step so as I work on those I’ll let you know what had me stumped and hopefully how I solved the problem and moved on.

Happy stitching!

Rosie's Monday Night Tidbits

Okay so I've been meaning to start this for some time now. Why I chose Monday nights I'm not sure but it seems like I always forgot it was Monday night when Monday night rolled around. I'd wake up Tuesday morning and remember what I had planned to do the night before. And it is still Monday night here in Hawaii! So here goes the first one!

I've decided to add a post to my blog to hold my sewing, crafting hints, tips, and tricks. Welcome to the first of many (hopefully!). Please plan to check back weekly to get the latest.

A little known trick has to do with emery powder used to sharpen needles. You know the little strawberry thing attach to the tomato pincushion. Yes it's full of emery powder and it's use is to sharpen your needles. Nowadays people are coming up with all sorts of cute ways to get your needles sharpened. To get the emery powder (or sand) to work it's best magic just squeeze it between your fingers and push your needle through several times. This creates enough friction or pressure to really do the job. Kinda like how you use an emery board to file your nails. And did you know that you can sharpen your sewing machine needles too? Just don't push it in past the start of the shank or you will make a large hole in the fabric and some powder may come out. Sand works much the same way as emery powder. A coarse sand will actually help remove corrosion/rust that you get in a humid place like Hawaii. I use a mixture of emery powder and sand in my needle candies. Yes candy for your needles, they'll love you for it and sew much better! Check them out in my Etsy shop.

Tune in next week for amother one of Rosie's Monday Night Tidbits!

P.S. I have a cute little owl coming to my shop soon whose ears have a secret! I'm going to post a picture of them on my facebook page soon so look for me there and become a fan of Big Island Rose Designs!

Life's Treasures

To me one of the most important types of treasures are friends. Friends come in all styles and from all walks of life. Some start out as family and wind up as friends, some start as friends and then become the start of a family. Some start out during our school days and where once they were “bosom buddies”, “friends for ever”, they became disconnected or just lose track of each other. Some we meet in person, some through correspondence, others at least nowadays we met online. But wherever they come from and however long they last, a short time or a lifetime, friends can be real gems, something to treasure. A friend can cry with us or help us to sing when we really feel like crying. A friend can make us laugh and forget our cares and woes for a minute. A friend can drop a note at just the right time to encourage us. A friend can push us in the right direction even when it seems they are being harsh on us. I remember a good friend I had when I worked in San Francisco, she took me to lunch once when I was going through a very rough time in my life. As we sat talking I was blaming everyone and everything else for my lot in life. She made me face myself and accept the responsibility for my life. It was hard, I actually hated myself when she was finished but to this day I say she was used of God to make me look in the mirror and see what I had become and where I was headed. It was a direct result of that meeting that I turned my life around and gave my heart to God. A friend can be a treasure indeed.

Speaking of treasures – In my last post I mentioned treasuries on Etsy. I thought I would write a little about them. Etsy is an online marketplace for all things handmade, for supplies, and for vintage (20+) items. Whatever you might be looking for from pillows to original art to a gift for a co-worker or just a quirky fun object to brighten up your day, you’re sure to find it on Etsy.
One thing they let both buyers and sellers do is showcase the work of others. You select 16 items from the vast array of wares, 12 of them will be the main treasury and 4 will be alternates. Arrange then the way you like and then when the opportunity arises, type in your title and load up your selections. Others will come in and look at the items and leave comments. A treasury lasts for 2-3 days. They are so much fun to do and you get a “feel good” feeling for encouraging and promoting others. I've placed a couple of treasuries I have made in the past here in this post. Etsy uses some of these treasuries for their home page. Of course the frosting on the cake is to have your treasury make the front page. But even without that they are still a joy to make. The next best thing is to have someone put one of your items in their treasury!
Every time I start searching for items to put in a treasury I am amazed at the variety of items offered on Etsy.
To find the treasuries go to Etsy’s homepage, look on the left-hand side scroll down to the Explore box and you’ll find the word Treasury. Click on that and you’ll see a list of treasuries (333+) to choose from. Be prepared though you could lose track of time once you start viewing them!


Encouraging others – to me that’s what life is all about!