Spring

                                                             Pollen season is upon us.

Lori Holt's Chicken Salad Sew Along

 

I just can't wait to start on this sew along! I ordered the kit a little late so I'm going to be playing catch up when it comes. 

If you haven't heard about Lori Holt's new Chicken Salad quilt or her new Cookbook fabric line you need to go and check them out on her blog: Bee In My Bonnet. Hope to start my quilt this next week!

Happy sewing,

Holly 

Little Pumpkins on Display

I have been working on something fun and exciting! These little guys have been so much fun to make. Each one has its own personality. 

Love these little guys! Seeing them clustered up like this reminds me of my favorite Halloween poem.

5 Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one says "Oh my it's getting late."

The second one said "There are bats in the air!"

The third one said "But we don't care!"

The forth one said "Let's run and run and run!"

The fifth one said "I'm ready for some fun!"

Oooooooo went the wind! Out went the light! 

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Hand sculpted candy corn pin made out of paper mache clay.

I made his hat out of 1940s recycled newspaper from a paper pieced quilt square. I want to use the quilt squares to make a quilt but hated to destroy the vintage newspaper on the back of them so I recycled them. I have had these squares for about 15 years and it is time to make that quilt. It is so fun to read the newspaper and ads.

Paper used on his hat was from the same batch of quilt squares. I believe that this was probably a grocery sack. It is thicker than the newspaper.

Each head is hand sculpted by me, dried for 2 days, painted and dried for a day, stained then dried for two more days. Attaching the head and making clothing takes about 2 hours and pincushion takes about an hour. Hat takes a day to complete with drying time included. So all in all these take about a week to make per kneehugger. I do have assembly lines going but not always. The hats take a while for mod podge to dry and several coats are applied so they take 1-2 days. The fun little paper mache pins take about 3-4 days-dry paper mache for 2 days and then paint and the stain takes 2 days to dry.

These little guys are so fun to design and create. I have a few snowmen made and will put them in my Etsy shop soon. I do have a few pumpkin kneehugger pincushions with thread buckets attached in the shop. 

Hope you have a wonderful day,

Holly

 

A Look Back At Summer Stitchin'

Few stitchy pieces from this past summer. All below pieces finished in the style of Priscillas2000 blog and bow tutorial from Javagirl Stitches on Youtube unless otherwise noted. Floss used was in the Priscilla and Chelsea's Fancy Floss Favorites by Fat Quarter Shop.

August by Hands on Design. Stitched this year. Changed the ants and large sunflower. Did not use called for colors.

July by Hands on Design. Stitched this year. 

All pieces with exception of Honeybee Sampling by Little House Needleworks were stitched and FFO'd this year.

Piesafe with a few stitchy pieces. 

All the flowers are from the garden. 

Buzzy String from Lizzie Kate. Priscillas2000 inspired. Mounted on "old" wood from Hobby Lobby.

Old Red Barn by LHN. Stitched and FFO'd this past summer.

4th of July Holiday Hoopla by With thy Needle and Thread. Mounted on chalk painted tray. Tray was very shiny and new looking, painted it with white chalk paint and then antiqued it with antiquing wax. 

Summer Whirligig by Heart In Hand. Chicken was cut with my Silhouette out of black cardstock.

Merry Making Mini Heart In Hand: Land of the Free.

Merry Making Mini Heart In Hand: Home of the Brave.

Mason jar painted to look like buffalo check.

Cute patriotic cookie and smores cookie from a local coffee shop.

Have a great weekend,

Holly

Change

A season of change. The blog has a new name, something that I have been contemplating for a while now. I love the story of the little red hen. She worked so hard all by herself. While I do love the help of others I also enjoy figuring out how to do something on my own.

Cotton and wool. Made this little quilt in 2016. It is so cute! Colors inspired by Pumpkin Patch Primitives. 

Lantern bow with cross stitched medallion. Pattern by Brenda Gervais.

This was a fun and quick stitch! It is Hands on Design. Very fun stitch using substitute colors that I had in my stash.

Handmade spider with fuzzy/fluffy body.

To use this most of the year, I replaced the pumpkins in the door with chickens and the pumpkins on the hill with sunflowers.

28 ct coffee/tea dyed monaco using called for threads.

Fall ready Hoosier. 

Hands on Design using Priscilla Blain's finishing inspirations and Javagirl Stitches youtube tutorial on bow making!

Stitched years ago. Scissors keep.

Happy stitching,

Holly

It's Been A While

I can't believe that it has been over a year since I blogged! Whew! It has been a crazy year! We sold our suburb house and bought one out in the country with acreage. This has been a dream of ours for a while. It is now the end of a school year so this means teacher gifts!! I love making teacher gifts.

Crochet chicken pot holders, monogrammed tea towels, slumped jar spoon rests are what we made for this year's teacher gifts. Little m made a sweet card also. She is turning into a little artist!

Little m's card for the teachers!

We have started keeping bees! I have two hives so far and hope to eventually have 5.

Honey bee on clover. All worker bees are girls :)

Opened hive to make sure the queen was released from the queen cage. When you order a package of bees you have to let them get used to the queen before she is released into the hive. 

Passed the written part of the test, now just have to past the practical part in about 4 mths to be state certified.

Some assembly and paint required.

Did you know that bees have pollen baskets on their back legs to carry pollen back to the hive for food for the worker bees and larvae?

Have a wonderful night,

Holly

Remembering.....

Remembering the brave who sacrificed all.