june at noon

I’m finally finding the time to get back to a couple of embroidery pieces (Christmas gifts) that I had to put on hold for more pressing projects. This one requires a good soaking before it will be ready for lacing onto its backing board. In the meantime, I’m whipping up what I hope will be [...]

A good friend of mine is a portrait photographer, and this summer she took some new family photos for us. As partial payment, I made a couple of items at her request, the first of which was a kids’ play mailbox. It’s customized for their family, and yes, that’s a pug, the type of dog [...]

In June, before I left for our family vacation and the subsequent blogging breaks, I finished up another quick set of Christmas gifts: ruffled scarves. I started with inspiration from several different tutorials I came across that used elastic thread to create a shirring effect. (I can’t find the original tutorial I looked at, but [...]

I’m still shaking the sand out of my shorts, so rather than show you that vaguely creative mess, would you mind some shots from last week’s space? Sigh. As always, there’s a party going on at Kirsty’s place. Surf on over if you fancy some more creativity.

There aren’t too many people I’d make this for. To begin with, I don’t know that many people who like Super Mario Brothers enough to be excited about a Mario-themed gift. And beyond that, I’m not a big fan of cross stitch. (I think people do some amazing work with cross stitch; I just don’t [...]

It’s some stitching for me this weekend. How about you?

A recent post by Michelle, with her kind words, reminded me that it might be time to get back to “normal” around here. You’ve maybe noticed that for some time now I’ve really changed my creative focus. I had been accumulating lists of projects I’d like to make for myself or the kids for ages, [...]

Here’s a super-quick learn-to-stitch project you can make with a preschooler: Take a favorite coloring book page and attach it to some thin cardboard (a piece of a cereal box would work fine). Cut around the shape if you wish. Laminate it for durability (we used clear contact paper), and then punch little holes (we [...]

This weekend found me boiling my embroidery. Yes, that’s right. Boiling it. Upon rinsing out the marking pen from a finished embroidery piece, I discovered that some of the red floss had bled onto the fabric. Horrors! (I’ve used this floss before and never had this sort of trouble.) After doing some research on the [...]

It’s gotten a little dull around here, I think. I’ve been quite satisfied getting loads of behind-the-scenes tasks completed, but it’s meant I don’t have a lot to show in the crafty department. I think I’ve gotten everything either done or in progress—until I discover some other mundane task in hiding. For now, though, it’s [...]